Transcript of "Advocacy Video Series Part 9" produced by Rooted in Rights Alright, we've made it to Part Nine! You have filled out your script, and you are ready to film! Here are some tips to film successfully. As a reminder, if you're looking for script templates or examples of fully filled-out scripts, we also have those at the link in our bio. So, you're ready to film. For this workshop, you're likely filming with a mobile phone or another very portable and accessible device I'm filming on my phone right now. There're a couple things to consider. Before you start filming, you want to make sure you decide if you want to film vertically or horizontal. Vertically, also known as 9 by 16 (9:16), is how we're filming right now. Horizontal, also known as 16 by 9 (16:9), is more of what you see when you watch television. It's totally up to you to pick which is going to work best, but decide, and keep it consistent before you start filming, and think about where you're going to post it. If you're looking to post it on an app where vertical is prioritized, that's great. If you want to put it somewhere where horizontal is more watched, you might want to film it in 16:9. Once you have decided on horizontal or vertical, or "aspect ratio," you also want to make sure you know the frame rate, and the resolution that you're filming in. We're filming right now in 1080 and 30 frames per second (fps). That's a perfectly great, high-definition way to film. You can also, on a lot of devices these days, shoot in 4k and 60 fps, or even higher frame rates. For a typical video where it's you hosting to camera, I think that 1080 and 30 fps is just great. If you do want that higher resolution, have fun with it. It can take a little bit longer to edit, and it also takes up more storage on your phone. So I would just make sure you know why you want that higher resolution. If there's a good reason, go for it. If not, I'd stick with 1080. Another thing you want to make sure of is that you have enough storage on your phone to record. You might be stopping and starting, or taking longer takes, and you want to make sure that you're not cut off in the middle by lack of storage. So see how much storage space you have available, and make sure, I would say, you have at least 10 gigs. That might be overestimating it a little bit, but depending how long your video is, the more space that you will need. When it comes time to film, we always recommend putting your phone on Do Not Disturb and Silent Mode so that other things aren't popping up while you're trying to do a take, and throwing you off. So as much as you can, basically, turn off any other functions of your phone while you're filming, so you can just focus on filming, the better. I've got some more tips for lighting and audio in the next video. End of transcript.

Transcript of "Advocacy Video Series Part 8" produced by Rooted in Rights Welcome to Part 8! We have written a script, answering the four questions. And we've put those script ideas in the hosting column of our script - we're back to the script template. We have thought about different types of shots, and visually, what we want our video to look like. And we've written out those ideas in the second column. And we've tried to match up the different hosting beats with the different visual things that we want to film; different types of shots, different environments, and also how we want to film the hosting. The third column, I just want to touch on before we jump into film tips. The third column is audio description and narration. Now, back when we were talking about terms, "hosting" was sort of our apple and "narration" was the little leaf on the side of the apple, because they are both generally things that are said to camera. But sometimes, you want to narrate something that you're not saying directly to camera. Say there's a percentage, a fact, a figure. Maybe it's something you didn't think of at the time of hosting and when you're editing, you want to add it back in. That's a great place, that third column, is great to either add narration to film later or maybe just get audio of. And it's also good to keep track as you go through the edits if you want to add stuff in. Now, audio description is not the same as narration, because audio description has a very specific purpose and that is to be an accessibility feature and to describe the essential visual information in any video. We like to introduce audio description during scripting, because you can sometimes do both hosting and audio description, or audio description and narration together. For example, me introducing what I look like would be an example of hosting and providing audio description. If you have a lot of B-Roll, and the B-Roll is giving more information than what you're saying and hosting, you're going to want to add audio description to make sure that folks really can get that visual information. We're going to go more in-depth into audio description after the editing section of this training. But I think it's really useful to think about describing your visuals as you're coming up with the script and before you film, because there can be great opportunities to just include a description of what you're showing or what you're filming in the hosting. Next, we are going to go into some tech tips and some filming tips. End of transcript.

Transcript of "Advocacy Video Series Part 7" produced by Rooted in Rights Part 7! So, as you're filling out the center column of your script template, the "Shot/ B-Roll/ Archival Footage column, you are filling out ideas of what you want your video to look like. We have some suggestions for different kinds of shots to use to keep your video interesting. Below me is a screenshot from one of our advocacy videos titled "Access Nature," and it features our host, who is direct to camera, and they are framed in what we call a "mid-shot." A "mid-shot" is essentially any shot where from about the waist up of a person's body is shown. Usually there's some background that is visible, but the focus is really on the person themselves. This is the main shot that we use for hosting. Which is, for a self- advocacy video, what we recommend when you're saying your script to camera. So, the "mid-shot" is a nice grounding shot to establish who you are and and tell your story directly to people. The next shot, shown below me from the same video, features the same subject, but, it is framed as a "wide shot." So the shot is our host, Syren, walking with a cane down a path in a forest. The camera is far away from Syren, we see them in the distance, and we see a lot of the environment. A lot of the forest and the nature, and because this video was about accessing nature, using this "wide shot" was a great way to give a sense of the environment and tie into the theme. Wide shots are great to establish places, to establish some movement, and to establish people as well. So use your wide shots when you want to set up the environment that you're talking about. Next we have the "close-up." Below me is another screenshot of Syren from the "Access Nature" video and the camera is very close to their face. And you can see some of the background, some of the trees behind them, but the focus is really on Syren's face and their reaction to the environment. Close-ups are great for emotion. They're also great to show detail. And you can film lots of different close-ups and cut between them in the edit and it will keep it visually interesting and can help with pacing as well. The next screenshot is the "Extreme Close-up." So this is a screenshot of a fern leaf from this same "Access Nature" movie. So there's not a person in it, but it's also not a wide shot of the environment. It was a close-up of a fern leaf in motion. This was great to just provide detail and visual interest and don't be afraid of an "Extreme Close-up" for emotion, as well. As you're filling out the second column, keep the visual interest by switching up what types of shots you're imagining. You don't have to stick to this perfectly, but it's a good way to start organizing how you're going to film and how it's going to look in post. End of transcript.

Transcript of "Advocacy Video Series Part 6" by Rooted in Rights Welcome to Part 6 where we're diving into the script template! So behind me is a very basic script template that we use at Rooted in Rights. It has three columns. The first one is labeled "Hosting." The second one is labeled "Shot/B-Roll/Graphics/Photos." And the third column is labeled "Audio Description and Narration." And the rows are just numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. So, we use this template for after we've brainstormed those four questions we went over in the last session. So you've answered the questions of, "Who are you?" "What happened?" "What did you need?" And "What are you asking for now?" You've expanded or contracted that script, added more details, honed it to where you want it to be, and now our suggestion would be to put it in the script template in the "hosting" column. Now, there's no rule in video that says that you have to host your video directly to camera, but, for the purposes of this training and a self- advocacy video, we find it really useful to tell your own story directly to the camera. And, the bulk of your script is going to be this "hosting" piece. What you are going to say to the camera about your experience. We find it helpful, um, with these rows that are numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, to sort of break up that hosting beat by beat. That might be sentence by sentence. It might be idea by idea. But, it's really just to break it down so that when you're filming you can go beat by beat and keep track of where you are. And then as we move over into the other columns, the "Shot/ B-Roll" column and the "Audio Description and Narration" columns we know where to match those things up with your hosting script. So for the second column, "Shot/B-Roll/Graphics/Photos," this is where you can start thinking about, visually, how you want your video to look. So, if you're hosting to camera, that's a visual. If you want photos, pictures from previous times in your life, if you want video illustrating some of the issues that you're talking about, that's all going to go in the second "B-Roll" column. So what we invite people to do is, once you've got your script, your hosting, what you want to say, move on to thinking about what you want it to look like and start writing out what that vision is in the second column. So if you know the first shot's going to be hosting to camera, you can just write that in. Um, in the next part I'm going to go over some shot suggestions for different kinds of shots you can write in the second column. For any script templates or an example script check out the link in our bio. End of Transcript

Transcript of Advocacy Video Series: Part 5 by Rooted in Rights [Music] ALLEXA: Hi everyone, it's Allexa from Rooted in Rights, and I'm here for Part Five of the Advocacy Video Series! And I'm here to talk about scripting. So, step one in producing your advocacy video will be to write a script. If writing a script is not your style, that's fine, but here's what we recommend. When you're making an advocacy story, you want to take your personal narrative and you want to connect it to a larger issue. To get started on your script, we recommend answering four questions. Question one: Who are you? Write one to two sentences about who you are and a brief description. Visual description is great to include here. Question two is: What happened? What is the circumstance, the issue, the experience that you had that you're going to talk about. Part three is: What did you need? So you had this experience. What was missing from that experience? What did you need at that time? Question four - to answer - is: What are you asking for now? Who are you? What happened? What did you need? And what are you asking for now? A great place to start is to write one to two sentences answering each of these questions. Once you have those questions answered, you can decide if you want to expand them, if you're making a longer piece, or keep them nice and tight, if you're making a short video. Also consider your audience. Who are you looking to reach with this video? Are you talking to peers? Are you, maybe, talking to legislators? The audience that you have can impact the tone you want to use. Do you want to be more casual and informal because you're talking to peers? Or do you want to be a little more concise and specific, depending on your audience. At Rooted in Rights, we use a simple script template and that script template basically has three columns. That first column is your "Hosting." What are you going to say on camera? And that's going to be your one to two sentence answers from your scripts. That second column is "B-Roll," which we're going to talk about in the next part. Which is going to be visually, what are you showing? Are you showing the hosting, the talking to camera? Or are you going to use B-roll, or other shots, to support that hosting. The third column that we have is an "audio description" column, which we're going to be talking about later, Which is an accessibility feature to make sure you're describing the visual information that's in your B-Roll. In the next part, I'm going to break down that script template just a little bit more. So join me for that. End of transcript.

Transcript of "Faces of Solitary- Joshua" produced by AVID and Rooted in Rights JOSHUA: My name's Joshua Jackson (thrumming music) I've been in prison twelve years. Twelve and a half years, something like that, and, I've spent seven and half years of them twelve years in the IMU's. I'm at Monroe Correctional Complex, Special Offenders Unit, C Unit. So when I came to prison, being that I was all in the newspapers, they took me right off the prison bus, and they threw me in the hole. So, eventually it was going to be like for a couple of days that I was going to be in the hole. Because they wanted to check and see if I needed involuntary protective custody. And, I didn't, you know. But, when I found out they wasn't going to let me out of the hole, I started acting out. Flooding my cell, doing self-harm. They would write me up for this stuff, and, eventually, there were so many write ups, that they recommended me for a program. And they sent me from there to Stafford Creek. And I stayed there about six or seven months. (metallic clang) I had something happen where one side of my face had got paralyzed. You know, and it's still like that, you know, and, they weren't giving me no medical help. A long time they never gave me no medical help. And then my behaviors just kept getting worse and worse. Because they kept me isolated. They just kept me in this box all day, and they wouldn't let me out. And um - then they sent me here, to Monroe, to their IMU. And I ended up staying in the IMU over there about three and half, three and a half years almost. You know, they weren't giving me no help. They were just leaving me there. And every time I do self harm, they would strap me to a bed, or they put me in a chair. I mean there was months I was on the bed. It's just- like, it's just a joke. This mental health is a joke. And it was a nightmare and I was so angry! And then you got, not just me, you got other inmates in here, that have severe mental health problems. They used to have a thing where they would say, "I need to see blood before I can come down there and talk to you." There are lot of people in IMU, don't belong in IMU. That if they were given the proper mental health care, they would they would- they'd have a way to utilize it, instead of acting out. NARRATOR: Since filming, Mr. Jackson was released and is living successfully in the community. End of Transcript

Transcript of "Advocacy Video Series - Part 4" produced by Rooted in Rights ALLEXA: Welcome to part four of the Advocacy Video Series. I'm back with more fruit and terms. I'm currently two eyes and a mouth on a pear. Our next term for this series is B-roll. B-roll is any footage that's not hosting. So when you're filming, and when you're editing, you capture B-roll and you edit B-roll into your film. So B-roll can really be anything, it can be shots of a city, pictures of fruit, photographs, footage of the host doing the things described in the video. B-roll helps set the scene for your video and keeps things interesting. I'm now two eyes and a mouth on a strawberry, and the next term is "stringout". So that makes me a Stringout Strawberry. Making a stringout is part of the editing process, so once you have filmed everything and you're bringing everything into editing, the stringout is when you have selected all of your best hosting, all the things you want, and you put it in the order that you want it for the final video. The stringout is important because it's all the best stuff in the order that you want it, and it's important to lock this in before you get to the cut. I'm now two eyes and a mouth on the crown of a pineapple, which is the part that you cut off and don't eat, which is great because we're talking about the next term, "cut". The cut! It's going to be an export of your video with B-roll added, music added, narration added, sound effects, audio description should be in there. You're going to take your stringout, you're going to add all these additional elements, and you're going to make a cut from those. In addition to being an export of your video with all the elements, a cut is also a term used for editing. You will make cuts when you're selecting the footage you want, and you will cut away the footage you don't want. And what are we going to be using to export and make all of these cuts, you ask? Kinemaster! Our last term for the series is Kinemaster. Now, Kinemaster is not really a term, it's the name of a program, so that's why I'm two eyes and a mouth on a bunch of different tomatoes, because tomatoes are fruit but we don't consider them fruits, in the way that Kinemaster is a term for this series, but it's not actually a term. Kinemaster is an app to edit video on your mobile phone, and it's the editing that I will be using and teaching in this video series. You can download Kinemaster in the app store for iOS, for Google, for a bunch of other phones and tablets. I haven't found one it hasn't worked on. Kinemaster is K-i-n-e-m-a-s-t-e-r and it's a free app. Up next, tips for scripting! End of transcript.

Transcript of "Advocacy Video Series - Part 2" produced by Rooted in Rights ALLEXA: Welcome to the Advocacy Video Series, Part 2. I'm Allexa from Rooted in Rights, and I'm a white woman with brown hair and I'm wearing yellow heart-shaped glasses. At Rooted in Rights we use video to advocate for change, and we want to help you do the same. In this series we're going over tools to help you tell your story in video form. For folks with disabilities, sharing our stories can be complicated, so here's some things to consider before you get started. The most important thing to consider before you share your story is making sure it's right for you to share the story. Check in with yourself. Do you feel ready to share it? Is it your story to tell? If you choose to share your story publicly, are you ready for the feedback that might come back to you? Remember that you don't owe anyone your story. Advocacy can be really exhausting and it's important to take care of yourself first. If you're not sure if you want to post the story publicly, that's no problem. You can go through the whole process, make a video, and just choose not to post it. If you're ready to get started, the next video will be reviewing terms that we're going to use throughout the series, and then video 4 is where we're going to start scripting. End of transcript.

Transcript of "Advocacy Video Series - Part 1" produced by Rooted in Rights ALLEXA: Do you have a story to share but you don't know where to start? Hi, I'm Allexa from Rooted in Rights, and we tell disability stories by and for disabled people. I'm a White woman with brown hair, and I'm wearing yellow heart-shaped glasses. We're going to be sharing a series with you all, about how to make your own advocacy video. There's lots of different ways that you can share stories. You can share it in a podcast, you can write a letter to a legislator, but at Rooted and Rights, we mainly do it using video stories, so we want to share tips and tools with you all for how you can do that too. Storytelling can be a really effective advocacy tool because it allows you to connect your personal experience with larger systemic issues. For folks with disabilities like me and my team, oftentimes the stories told about us are wrong, and being able to share your own story is an opportunity to change the narrative. You are the expert of your own experience and your story is important. So if you want to know how to structure a story, how to script it, how to film it using your mobile phone, how to edit with some free editing tools, and how to make all of that content accessible, follow our series, and we're going to show you how. Check out our existing stories at RootedInRights.org /Storytellers, and follow us for the rest of the advocacy video series. End of transcript.

Narrator] Border Narratives, stories of people with disabilities living at the US Mexico border. [Audio Description] A montage of arid landscapes and cities. Next, a man is interviewed remotely against a map background. [Lawrence] My name's Lawrence Brown the third and I am from El Paso, Texas. I am Mexican American but I'm also Black American. I am blind. [Audio Description] Lawrence plays a drum kit beside a keyboardist. [Lawrence] I've been a professional musician for my entire adult life. It's the first job I ever had and it's the longest running job I've ever had. Right now I'm working at the University of Texas at El Paso with the dance department playing some traditional Afro Cuban rhythms. [Audio Description] Lawrence in a two-piece suit with his guide dog, he prepares for a concert. [Lawrence] I have my own project, it's called the Vitruvian Project and that's a hiphop project. My dad's a big hiphop head and I always grew up listening to a lot of hiphop. [Audio Description] An aerial view of El Paso at sunset, mountains loom in the arid landscape behind. [Lawrence] El Paso is the pass. It was the way that the Spanish found to get through these mountains, which are Franklin Mountains and then you’d get into what is now New Mexico. [Audio Description] A monochromatic map of North America zooms in to show a red border line between El Paso and neighboring Juarez. [Lawrence] In a lot of ways, in El Paso, you have this wonderful community feeling and then at the border, you have all the worst and most ugly sentiments that have kind of plagued this country from its outset. It's just a different little mutation. [Audio Description] Cars file through a border crossing. [Lawrence] With my disability, I cannot make eye contact and my eyes roam around when I pull up to the customs and border patrol people. I try to have my cane out even though I'm sitting in a car and I won't be using my cane at all. So that then maybe they'll see it and get the hint that I'm blind 'cause if not, you know, if I'm the one handing off the passports, it's not gonna be a regular sort of a handoff. It might look like I'm drunk or it might look like this or that, you know and I've gotten a lot of comments, like, had a long night or had a rough day or had a, you know, and it's like, no, I'm just blind. And then once they ask you for the documentation, then you've gotta be prepared for whatever they're gonna throw at you. You know, I own a car, I'm a drummer so I have to carry a lot of equipment around, so I'll have somebody drive me. And you know, the inevitable question is, whose car is this? You know, it's like, it's my car. Well, why is he driving? Because I'm blind. [Audio Description] A bridge separating El Paso and Juarez at the border. [Lawrence] The experiences that happen at the bridge, if you're in a car and the occupants of that car are multiracial or they don't fit into the typical family mold of what is being profiled, reminded me of reading about the Jim Crow experiences that so many had in the South, and knowing that my father's family had those sorts of experiences coming from Louisiana into Mississippi into Texas. You have, you know, one class of people dismissing another class of people based on the color of their skin. So if you don't fit into, well, everybody in the car is white, or everybody in the car is brown or everybody in the car is black or everybody, then they immediately assume that you're up to no good. [Audio Description] A sign at the border reads, have your documents ready. [Lawrence] It's a tough situation to talk about because it seems like if you don't want your mind to be changed, it's not gonna be changed. [Audio Description] Lawrence playing drums and singing with his band in a small club. [Lawrence] I hope that the future narrative, becomes the narrative of everyday life. Not the narrative of the media, but the narrative of a life where, you know, there might be a festival going on in Juarez. So we go and we check that out and then we spend some money over there and then we come back and we do our thing here. We work, we make connections, the narrative of a situation where students can come to school here and get a better education. And that that's a good thing. [Audio Description] An aerial shot of El Paso at dusk. City lights glowing beneath a dark pink sky. [Lawrence] I want people to know that without the joint economies of the two cities, this area would be destitute. We wouldn't have the money that we have, we wouldn't have the prosperity that we have. [Audio Description] Crowds of people crossing a fenced in bridge. [Lawrence] Just because we're not represented doesn't mean that we're not gonna have an increasing space in the narrative of this country and in the narrative of this world as we become more globalized. The love of family and the love of taking care of one another, those are things that we hold really dear in the culture here and I think that's why we're one of the safest cities in the country. If we want to have hope in the American nation as a whole, we need to look to our border towns to learn what we're doing wrong and maybe learn a little bit about what's going right. [Narrator] Border Narratives, produced by Arizona Disability Law Center and Rooted In Rights, Funding by Borealis Philanthropy. END OF TRANSCRIPT

[Narrator] "Border Narratives", stories of people with disabilities living at the US-Mexico border. [Audio Description] A montage of arid landscapes and cities. Next, a woman with short hair and glasses is interviewed remotely against a virtual cactus background. [Alisha Vasquez] My name is Alisha Vasquez. I am from Tucson, Arizona. I'm fifth generation Tucsonanse. Meaning my family has occupied these lands that have been historically cared for by the Tahanate, Yoemy and Apache people and my family has been here since 1880. [Audio Description] A monochromatic map of North America zooms in to show a red border line between Tucson and neighboring Altar. [Alisha] My great great grandfather Adolfo Vasquez was born in Altar Sonora Which is about two hours South of Tucson. The line that exists between the US and Mexico didn't exist when he was born. [Audio Description] Photograph of the red iron border wall cutting through the desert. A tall cactus in the foreground. [Alisha] It was pretty much not the border as we understand it today until about 1994 and we started to see this fortification of our southern border with Mexico. [Audio Description] An aerial view of Tucson sprawling outward towards arid mountains. Next street car passes in front of a downtown center. [Alisha] Like most cities of its size Tucson is going through this incredible gentrification boom; which is displacing and pricing out people that have been here. Indigenous folks, folks without money, and then of course disabled people kind of fall in that disposable category. And so this downtown center that my grandfather grew up in that my family you know kind of helped create, is going through this just immense wave of demolishing and then building anew without the brown and black bodies that were there. [Audio Description] Alisha sits on a carpeted floor playing with a small girl. [Alisha] Right now I’m identifying as a Crip Chicana mama. I am the proud parent of a three year old named Athena. [Audio Description] Alisha in the kitchen with Athena. Crutches lean against the counter top. [Alisha] I was born with a short left leg and I've had about twenty surgeries to quote unquote “correct” my short leg and so I've been in a wheelchair and crutch user since I was five years old. [Audio Description] Alisha sits outside her small brick home typing on a laptop in the shade. [Alisha] When I started college it gave me a whole new set of lenses with which to understand my life. Being from Tucson, I was the first person in my family to make it by a scholarship to the University of Arizona where I felt like a total outsider. Feeling like the other as a poor person, feeling like the other as chicana, feeling like the other as a woman, all of those things intersected but it was here that I really started to see myself through Crip eyes. And I would say it was still very much trying to mimic the super Crip mentality that I think so many of us have. I think that was part of my pushing myself like "I'm gonna be a success". "I'm gonna go to college to get out of poverty," "I'm not gonna complain because other people have it worse." I think that that for a lot of disabled people gets us stuck in performing and doing things that actually end up hurting us physically, spiritually, and emotionally. [Audio Description] Alisha uses crutches to walk beside her husband while Athena pedals a bike in front. [Alisha] It wasn't until, I would say I was about thirty-three and I really wanted to become a parent, that I finally said "You know what, my body's different," and I started to honor that and I started to unlearn neoliberal capitalist notions of what success is, and I started to unlearn super Cripdom. And that meant you know, giving up a lot of the identities that I thought defined who I was. [Audio Description] Alisha uses crutches to navigate downtown Tucson. [Alisha] When I became pregnant it became harder to walk. I’m definitely physically not ever gonna be what I was four years ago today, but also like I don't miss that I don't wanna be that anymore. And so unlearning those coping mechanisms that I think a lot of especially Mexican-American women hold in order to just survive. They're survival mechanisms my mom gave me a lot of them, but they're from the perspective of an able-bodied person so unlearning them as Crip Chicana mama, it's gotten me to the space to where I can understand why I was the way that I am, understand why society is the way it is, but also its given me the knowledge and power to be very true to myself and that's been, I think the most liberating experience of my life. [Audio Description] Paper flowers hang from a traditional thatched roof. Next Alisha tours a museum exhibit. [Alisha] So the Mexican-American Heritage and History museum was founded in March of 2019 and I was appointed co-director in February of 2022, and I'm hoping to bring my experience as a middle school, high school, college educator, as well as a community activist who very much is honoring place-based history, place-based heritage and place-based culture. I want to create this moment where people can unlearn all of the colonial narratives, all of the meta narratives that we've been fed, to understand that they themselves don't have to believe what the media is telling them, what politicians are telling them, and even what their family members are telling them. I see that as my role as an educator, to create these spaces where people can get talking and to think a little bit more critically about what the border is. [Audio Description] Alisha sits smiling. Her chin resting on her crutches. In the background, a panoramic view of sunny Tucson. [Narrator] Border Narratives produced by Arizona Disability Law Center and Rooted in Rights. Funding by Borealis Philanthropy. END OF TRANSCRIPT

[Narrator] “Border Narratives”, stories of people with disabilities living at the US Mexico border. [Audio Description] A montage of arid landscapes and cities. Next, a person with long hair, streaked with blonde and wearing an orange knit hat is interviewed remotely against a map background. They are dubbed in Spanish by a voice actor [Amalia] My name is Amalia Mondragon and I am from the border of Ciudad Juarez, El Paso, Texas and La Nueva, New Mexico. [Audio Description] A monochromatic map of North America zooms in to show a red borderline between El Paso and neighboring Juarez. [Amalia] El Paso's still very connected to being from the earth. There's not like super high skyscrapers and there's a lot of open area, the mountains are in your face, they're not all built on. [Audio Description] An aerial shot of low lying Juarez at the US Mexico border. [Amalia] Juarez, you know, it's my other half, my family, my friends, it's the same desert. The only difference is that wall. [Audio Description] An aerial shot of a rusted iron wall cutting through the desert and receding into the distance. [Amalia] People that live there have been there for generations and the border crossed them. The people who are gentrifying obviously don't have a connection to El Paso and so they want to bring New York here, they want to bring LA, they want to bring Austin and they're not understanding that El Paso and Juarez are its own historical beauty. [Audio Description] El Paso at sunset, shadowed mountains loom in the distance. [Amalia] El Paso likes to blame Juarez. It's like that blame it on the little sister kind of thing. So Juarez always takes the blame for a lot of things that happen in El Paso. People go to Juarez to do their dirty business and then come back to El Paso and they just wash their hands and then say, Oh it was Juarez, it's Juarez's fault. [Audio Description] A selfie of Amalia smiling in soft, warm light. Next, a photo of them in cowboy boots and a multicolored skirt, arms raised in a V and looking upwards. [Amalia] I identify as Transfronterizx. A Transfronterizx person is a person who navigates both sides of the border. The X is non-binary, and it's kind of a play on words as well, because I'm in the trans world, just transiting the world of genders. [Audio Description] Amalia sings and plays guitar for a small seated group. [Amalia] I was diagnosed with ADHD in first grade. My whole life, even though English was shoved down my throat I had a really hard time retaining anything I read. I was the first person in my family to ever go to college so there was absolutely no information. I was swimming in the dark by myself. [Audio Description] Photo of Amalia tuning their guitar. [Amalia] The department that I was in, which was music, was very insensitive. They were trying to weed people out. So if you can't handle this, then you need to get out. So I failed. [Audio Description] An aerial shot of downtown El Paso. [Amalia] I moved to El Paso eventually to go to school at El Paso Community College and I came across the most amazing center for students with disabilities. They were really helpful with the part of raising your self-esteem to know that you can do it. That maybe it might take extra time, whatever amount of time it takes, that's your process. Later on, once I got better at note taking a tutor position opened up and they offered it to me, and eventually I became the highest paid tutor, which was really cool. [Audio Description] Aerial view of a bridge hovering above the US Mexico border. [Amalia] There are people with disabilities on the border, migrants with disabilities. There's people that have disabilities beforehand and then there's people that suffer accidents on their way through their journey to migrate. Where they lose a leg or they become paralyzed when they jump, they go through a lot of things. Human trafficking is real and a lot of horrible, horrible, horrible things happen. [Audio Description] A wall of reinforced chain and barbed wire, a border patrol SUV guards an entrance. [Amalia] People are left with mental health issues and traumas and PTSD. Unfortunately, ICE and MPP and a lot of the border customs people, they don't talk about the disabled people and the disabilities that live among people who cross. [Audio Description] Crowds of people crossing a fenced in bridge. [Amalia] Because that would be a way of seeing the migrants in a compassionate light. I mean, I haven't seen people or the media view migrants as people, as humans. [Audio Description] Amalia performing outside; a small child swings gently in a hammock. [Amalia] I grew up in a time period where it was very discriminatory to be disabled in any shape or form. And it has taken a lot of work, a lot of work, to change the tape in my head from I can't do this to there's a way to do this and you just gotta find it. [Audio Description] The rusted metal border wall cutting through the desert. [Amalia] And if we're able to understand where we tend to struggle or have trouble, then we can really grow from that. [Narrator] Border Narratives, produced by Arizona Disability Law Center and Rooted in Rights. Funding by Borealis Philanthropy. END OF TRANSCRIPT

[Narrator] "Border Narratives", stories of people with disabilities living at the U.S./Mexico border. [Audio Description] A montage of arid landscapes and cities. Next, a man with sunglasses and a headset is interviewed remotely against a map background. He is dubbed in Spanish by a voice actor. [Daniel] Hello, my name is Daniel Martinez and I'm from Brownsville, Texas. I identify as a Chicano man. I'm 31 years old. I am an educator and a mentor. I participate in different programs working with families of students with disabilities. I love playing music, dancing, doing art. [Audio Description] Photo of Daniel from the back walking with the cane beside a toddler. [Daniel] Six months ago I became a father, so a lot of the music that I'm playing and listening to is geared for children and my baby is having a lot of fun. [Audio Description] A monochromatic map of North America zooms in to show a red border line between Brownsville and Matamoros. [Daniel] I was born and raised in Brownsville, Texas. My family comes from Matamoros, Mexico, and these are border towns. Border towns, it means that I can live the best of both worlds, one way or the other. My wife and child were born in Matamoros, and I go and come back quite frequently. [Audio Description] Sections of a river curve through a low-lying city dotted with lush trees. [Daniel] Brownsville, Texas is a very peaceful place. The majority of us are Hispanic. As a blind individual, I have high expectations for my community. Unfortunately, it's not always the most accessible place. However, I'm finding that, communicating with leaders in the community, they are paying attention, and I want to be more involved to make that difference in my community. [Audio Description] A street intersection of a small town. Next, a corner market with vibrant, hand-painted signs in Spanish. [Daniel] Matamoros is a beautiful place, not visually, but culturally. The music, the food, and the people, they are quite engaging, but I could tell you that I expect a whole lot less from Matamoros than I do from Brownsville. [Audio Description] A photo of a Mexican flag billowing atop a state building. [Daniel] Mexico does have non-discriminatory laws. However, people with disabilities are not being granted those rights. [Audio Description] A woman in a wheelchair beside the tall, iron border wall. [Daniel] It's as if they were not in existence. And that's quite unfortunate. However, when I'm out and about, people are quite respectful, and that's what I love, that they're not mandated to not discriminate against me, but they usually don't. [Audio Description] Crowds of people with masks form lines between stout fences. [Daniel] In early 2021, I started asking my city officials what they were doing to obtain vaccines for people with disabilities, and I heard crickets. Over time, I heard from an organization, Down By The Border. [Audio Description] Down By The Border webpage, with tagline "An association helping children with special needs". [Daniel] They were doing the same. They were asking the city why people with disabilities were not receiving services. When I reached out to the organization, right away they recruited me to be part of their outreach program. And it's unfortunate that the city basically stated that they didn't have the manpower to reach out to people with disabilities. Down By The Border stepped up and provided that service. But in reality, the city should have been responsible for that. [Audio Description] Photo of Daniel standing with a white cane and wearing a suit and tie. [Daniel] People with disabilities are not part of the conversation when people talk about situations in the border. I would like the narrative regarding disabilities to improve. The way it would improve would be for people on both sides of the border to be conscientious of the needs of people with disabilities. [Narrator] "Border Narratives", produced by Arizona Disability Law Center, and Rooted in Rights. funding by Borealis Philanthropy. END OF TRANSCRIPT

[Narradora] "Relatos de la frontera", historias de personas con discapacidad que viven en la frontera Estados Unidos - México. [Audiodescripción] Un escenario de paisajes áridos y ciudades. Luego, un hombre es entrevistado en remoto con un mapa de fondo. Es doblado al español por un actor de doblaje. [Lawrence] Me llamo Lawrence Brown tercero y soy de El Paso, Texas. Soy mexicano-americano pero también soy negro-americano. Soy ciego. [Audiodescripción] Lawrence toca la batería junto a un teclista. [Lawrence] He sido músico profesional durante toda mi vida adulta. Es el primer trabajo que tuve y es el más largo que he tenido. Ahora mismo trabajo en la Universidad de Texas en El Paso con el departamento de danza tocando algunos ritmos tradicionales afrocubanos. [Audiodescripción] Lawrence, con un traje de dos piezas y su perro guía, se prepara para un concierto. [Lawrence] Tengo mi propio proyecto, se llama Vitruvian Project y es un proyecto de hiphop. Mi padre es un gran aficionado al hiphop y yo siempre crecí escuchando mucho hiphop. [Audiodescripción] Una vista aérea de El Paso al atardecer, las montañas se asoman en el árido paisaje de atrás. [Lawrence] El Paso es el paso. Fue el camino que los españoles encontraron para atravesar estas montañas, que son las Montañas Franklin y luego te adentrarías en lo que ahora es Nuevo México. [Audiodescripción] Un mapa monocromático de América del Norte se amplía para mostrar una línea fronteriza roja entre El Paso y la vecina Juárez. [Lawrence] En muchos sentidos, en El Paso, tienes este maravilloso sentimiento de comunidad y luego en la frontera, tienes todos los peores y más feos sentimientos que han aquejado a este país desde sus inicios. Es sólo una pequeña mutación diferente. [Audiodescripción] Los coches pasan por un paso fronterizo. [Lawrence] Con mi discapacidad, no puedo hacer contacto visual y mis ojos vagan de un lado a otro cuando me acerco a la gente de la aduana y la patrulla fronteriza. Intento tener mi bastón fuera aunque esté sentado en un coche y no vaya a utilizarlo en absoluto. Para que tal vez lo vean y capten la idea de que soy ciego, porque si no, ya sabes, si soy yo quien entrega los pasaportes, no va a ser una entrega normal. Podría parecer que estoy borracho o podría parecer cualquier cosa, ya sabes, y he recibido muchos comentarios, como, tuvo una larga noche o tuvo un día difícil, ya sabes, y es como, no, sólo soy ciego. Y una vez que te piden la documentación, entonces tienes que estar preparado para lo que sea que te vayan a lanzar. Sabes, tengo un coche, soy baterista y tengo que llevar mucho equipo, así que pido a alguien que me lleve. Y la pregunta inevitable es, ¿de quién es este coche? Ya sabes, es como, es mi coche. Bien, ¿por qué está conduciendo él? Porque soy ciego. [Audiodescripción] Un puente que separa El Paso y Juárez en la frontera. [Lawrence] Las situaciones que se dan en el puente, si estás en un coche y los ocupantes de ese coche son multirraciales o no encajan en el típico molde familiar de lo que se está perfilando, me recuerdan a la lectura de las experiencias de Jim Crow que tantos vivieron en el Sur, y a saber que la familia de mi padre tuvo ese tipo de experiencias al venir de Luisiana a Misisipi y a Texas. Hay una clase de personas que rechaza a otra clase de personas por el color de su piel. Así que si no encajas en, bueno, todo el mundo en el coche es blanco, o todo el mundo en el coche es marrón o todo el mundo en el coche es negro, entonces inmediatamente asumen que no eres bueno. [Audiodescripción] Un letrero en la frontera dice: "Tenga sus documentos preparados". [Lawrence] Es una situación difícil de hablar porque parece que si no quieres que tu mente sea cambiada, no va a ser cambiada. [Audiodescripción] Lawrence tocando la batería y cantando con su banda en un pequeño club. [Lawrence] Espero que la narrativa del futuro sea la narrativa de la vida cotidiana. No la narrativa de los medios de comunicación, sino la narrativa de una vida en la que haya un festival en Juárez. Entonces vamos y lo comprobamos y luego gastamos algo de dinero allí y luego volvemos y hacemos lo nuestro aquí. Trabajamos, hacemos conexiones, la narrativa de una situación en la que los estudiantes pueden venir a la escuela aquí y obtener una mejor educación. Y que eso es algo bueno. [Audiodescripción] Una toma aérea de El Paso al anochecer. Las luces de la ciudad brillan bajo un cielo rosa oscuro. [Lawrence] Quiero que la gente sepa que sin las economías conjuntas de las dos ciudades, esta zona estaría en la miseria. No tendríamos el dinero que tenemos, no tendríamos la prosperidad que tenemos. [Audiodescripción] Multitud de personas cruzando un puente cercado. [Lawrence] Sólo porque no estemos representados no significa que no vayamos a tener un espacio cada vez mayor en la narrativa de este país y en la narrativa de este mundo a medida que nos globalizamos. El amor por la familia y el amor por cuidarse unos a otros, son cosas que tenemos muy presentes en la cultura de aquí y creo que por eso somos una de las ciudades más seguras del país. Si queremos tener esperanza en la nación estadounidense en general, tenemos que mirar a nuestras ciudades fronterizas para aprender lo que estamos haciendo mal y quizás aprender un poco sobre lo que va bien. [Narradora] Relatos de la frontera, producido por Arizona Disability Law Center y Rooted in Rights. Financiado por Borealis Philanthropy. FIN DE LA TRANSCRIPCIÓN

[Narrador] "Relatos de la frontera", historias de personas con discapacidad que viven en la frontera Estados Unidos - México. [Audiodescripción] Un escenario de paisajes áridos y ciudades. Luego, una persona con el pelo largo, con mechones rubios y con un gorro de punto naranja es entrevistada en remoto sobre el fondo de un mapa. Es doblada al español por una actriz de doblaje. [Amalia] Me llamo Amalia Mondragón y soy de la frontera de Ciudad Juárez, El Paso, Texas and La Unión, New México. [Audiodescripción] Un mapa monocromático de América del Norte se amplía para mostrar una línea fronteriza roja entre El Paso y la vecina Juárez. [Amalia] El Paso sigue estando muy conectado con la tierra. No hay rascacielos muy altos y hay muchas zonas abiertas, las montañas están en tu cara, no están todas urbanizadas. [Audiodescripción] Una toma aérea de la zona baja de Juárez en la frontera Estados Unidos-México. [Amalia] Juárez, ya sabes, es mi otra mitad, mi familia, mis amigos, es el mismo desierto. La única diferencia es ese muro. [Audiodescripción] Una toma aérea de un muro de hierro oxidado que atraviesa el desierto y se pierde en la distancia. [Amalia] La gente que vive allí ha estado durante generaciones y la frontera les ha cruzado. La gente que se está gentrificando obviamente no tiene una conexión con El Paso y por eso quieren traer Nueva York aquí, quieren traer Los Ángeles, quieren traer Austin y no están entendiendo que El Paso y Juárez tiene su propia belleza histórica. [Audiodescripción] El Paso al atardecer, las montañas sombreadas se asoman en la distancia. [Amalia] A El Paso le gusta culpar a Juárez. Es como eso de echarle la culpa a la hermana pequeña. Así que Juárez siempre tiene la culpa de muchas cosas que pasan en El Paso. La gente va a Juárez a hacer sus negocios sucios y luego vuelven a El Paso y se lavan las manos y luego dicen, Oh fue Juárez, es culpa de Juárez. [Audiodescripción] Una selfie de Amalia sonriendo bajo una luz suave y cálida. Luego, una foto con botas vaqueras y una falda multicolor, con los brazos levantados en V y mirando hacia arriba. [Amalia] Me identifico como Transfronterizx. Una persona Transfronterizx es una persona que navega por ambos lados de la frontera. La X es no binaria, y es una especie de juego de palabras también, porque estoy en el mundo trans, sólo que transitando el mundo de los géneros. [Audiodescripción] Amalia canta y toca la guitarra para un pequeño grupo sentado. [Amalia] Me diagnosticaron con TDAH en primer grado. Toda mi vida, aunque el inglés me lo hicieron tragar, me costó mucho retener todo lo que leía. Fui la primera persona de mi familia en ir a la universidad, así que no había absolutamente ninguna información. Nadaba sola en la oscuridad. [Audiodescripción] Foto de Amalia afinando su guitarra. [Amalia] El departamento en el que estaba, que era el de música, era muy insensible. Intentaban expulsar a la gente. Así que si no puedes manejar esto, entonces tienes que salir. Así que fracasé. [Audiodescripción] Una toma aérea del centro de El Paso. [Amalia] Me mudé a El Paso para ir a la escuela de El Paso Community College y me encontré con el centro más increíble para estudiantes con discapacidades. Me ayudaron mucho con la parte de aumentar tu autoestima para saber que puedes lograrlo. Que tal vez te lleve más tiempo, sea cual sea el tiempo que te lleve, ese es tu proceso. Más tarde, cuando mejoré en la toma de apuntes, se abrió un puesto de tutora y me lo ofrecieron, y finalmente me convertí en la tutora mejor pagada, lo que fue realmente genial. [Audiodescripción] Vista aérea de un puente que se cierne sobre la frontera entre Estados Unidos y México. [Amalia] Hay personas con discapacidad en la frontera, migrantes con discapacidad. Hay personas que presentan discapacidades previamente y también hay personas que sufren accidentes en su viaje para migrar. Pierden una pierna o se quedan paralizados al saltar, pasan por muchas cosas. El tráfico de personas es real y ocurren muchas cosas horribles, horribles, horribles. [Audiodescripción] Un muro de cadenas reforzadas y alambre de espino, un todoterreno de la patrulla fronteriza vigila la entrada. [Amalia] Hay gente que queda con problemas de salud mental y traumas y estrés postraumático. Desgraciadamente, el Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas y la Policía Militar, así como mucha de la gente de las aduanas, no hablan de las personas discapacitadas y de las discapacidades que viven quienes cruzan. [Audiodescripción] Multitud de personas cruzando un puente vallado. [Amalia] Porque eso sería una forma de ver a los migrantes bajo una luz compasiva. Quiero decir, no he visto que la gente o los medios de comunicación vean a los migrantes como personas, como seres humanos. [Audiodescripción] Amalia actuando en el exterior; un niño pequeño se balancea suavemente en una hamaca. [Amalia] Crecí en una época en la que era muy discriminatorio ser discapacitado de cualquier forma. Y me ha costado mucho trabajo, mucho trabajo, cambiar la cinta en mi cabeza de no puedo hacer esto a hay una manera de hacerlo y sólo tienes que encontrarla. [Audiodescripción] El muro fronterizo de metal oxidado que atraviesa el desierto. [Amalia] Y si somos capaces de entender dónde tendemos a sufrir o tener problemas, entonces podemos realmente crecer a partir de eso. [Narrador] Relatos de la frontera, producido por Arizona Disability Law Center y Rooted in Rights. Financiado por Borealis Philanthropy. FIN DE LA TRANSCRIPCIÓN

[Narrador] "Relatos de la frontera", historias de personas con discapacidad que viven en la frontera Estados Unidos - México. [Audiodescripción] Un escenario de paisajes áridos y ciudades. Allí, una mujer con pelo corto y gafas es entrevistada en remoto sobre un fondo virtual de cactus. Es doblada al español por una actriz de doblaje. [Alisha Vasquez] Mi nombre es Alisha Vásquez. Soy de Tucson, Arizona. Soy Tucsonense de quinta generación. Lo que significa que mi familia ha ocupado estas tierras que han sido históricamente cuidadas por los Tahanates, los Yoemíes y los apaches y mi familia ha estado aquí desde 1880. [Audiodescripción] Un mapa monocromático de Norteamérica se amplía para mostrar una línea fronteriza roja entre Tucson y la vecina Altar. [Alisha] Mi bisabuelo Adolfo Vásquez nació en Altar Sonora que está a unas dos horas al sur de Tucson. La línea que existe entre Estados Unidos y México no existía cuando él nació. [Audiodescripción] Fotografía del muro fronterizo de hierro rojo que atraviesa el desierto. Un cactus alto en primer plano. [Alisha] Básicamente no era la frontera como la entendemos hoy hasta aproximadamente 1994 y empezamos a ver esta fortificación de nuestra frontera sur con México. [Audiodescripción] Una vista aérea de Tucson extendiéndose hacia las áridas montañas. Luego pasa un tranvía frente a un centro de la ciudad. [Alisha] Al igual que la mayoría de las ciudades de su tamaño, Tucson está atravesando este increíble auge de la gentrificación, que está desplazando y poniendo precio a la gente que ha estado aquí. La gente indígena, la gente sin dinero y, por supuesto, los discapacitados entran en esa categoría de desechables. Así que el centro de la ciudad en el que creció mi abuelo y que mi familia ayudó a crear, está pasando por esta inmensa ola de demolición y construcción de nuevo sin los cuerpos marrones y negros que estaban allí. [Audiodescripción] Alisha está sentada en una alfombra jugando con una niña pequeña. [Alisha] En este momento me identifico como una mamá Crip Chicana. Soy la orgullosa madre de una niña de tres años llamada Athena. [Audiodescripción] Alisha en la cocina con Athena. Muletas apoyadas en la encimera. [Alisha] Nací con la pierna izquierda corta y me han operado casi veinte veces para, entre comillas, "corregir" mi pierna corta, por lo que estoy en silla de ruedas y uso muletas desde los cinco años. [Audiodescripción] Alisha está sentada fuera de su pequeña casa de ladrillo tecleando en un portátil a la sombra. [Alisha] Cuando empecé la universidad esto me dio un nuevo par de gafas con las que entender mi vida. Siendo de Tucson, fui la primera persona de mi familia en conseguir una beca en la Universidad de Arizona, donde me sentí como una completa intrusa. Sentirme extraña como persona pobre, sentirme extraña como chicana, sentirme extraña como mujer, todas esas cosas se cruzaron, pero fue aquí donde realmente empecé a verme a través de los ojos de Crip. Y diría que todavía estaba tratando de imitar la mentalidad súper Crip que creo que muchos de nosotros tenemos. Creo que eso fue parte de mi empuje como "Voy a ser un éxito". "Voy a ir a la universidad para salir de la pobreza", "No voy a quejarme porque otras personas lo tienen peor". Creo que eso, para muchas personas discapacitadas, nos estanca en en llevar a cabo y hacer cosas que en realidad acaban perjudicándonos física, espiritual y emocionalmente. [Audiodescripción] Alisha utiliza muletas para caminar junto a su marido mientras Athena pedalea una bicicleta delante. [Alisha] No fue hasta que, yo diría que tenía unos treinta y tres años y realmente quería ser madre, que finalmente dije "Sabes qué, mi cuerpo es diferente", y empecé a honrarlo y empecé a desaprender las nociones capitalistas neoliberales de lo que es el éxito, y empecé a desaprender el ser súper crip. Y eso significó, ya sabes, renunciar a muchas de las identidades que creía que definían quién era yo. [Audiodescripción] Alisha usa muletas para moverse por el centro de Tucson. [Alisha] Cuando quedé embarazada se me hizo más difícil caminar. Definitivamente, físicamente no voy a ser nunca lo que era hace cuatro años, pero tampoco echo de menos no querer ser eso nunca más. Y así desaprender esos mecanismos de afrontamiento que creo que muchas mujeres, especialmente las mexicano-americanas, mantienen para poder sobrevivir. Son mecanismos de supervivencia que mi madre me dio, pero desde la perspectiva de una persona sin discapacidad, así que desaprenderlos como madre chicana crip, me ha llevado al punto en el que puedo entender por qué soy como soy, por qué la sociedad es como es, pero también me ha dado el conocimiento y el poder de ser muy fiel a mí misma y eso ha sido, creo, la experiencia más liberadora de mi vida. [Audiodescripción] Flores de papel cuelgan de un techo de paja tradicional. Luego, Alisha recorre una exposición del museo. [Alisha] Entonces, el museo de Herencia e Historia México-Americana fue fundado en marzo de 2019 y yo fui nombrada codirectora en febrero de 2022, y espero aportar mi experiencia como educadora de secundaria, preparatoria y universidad, así como de activista comunitaria que honra mucho la historia del lugar, la herencia del lugar y la cultura del lugar. Quiero crear un momento en el que la gente pueda desaprender todas las narrativas coloniales, todas las metanarrativas con las que nos han alimentado, para entender que ellos mismos no tienen que creer lo que les dicen los medios de comunicación, lo que les dicen los políticos e incluso lo que les dicen sus familiares. Creo que ese es mi papel como educadora, crear estos espacios en los que la gente pueda hablar y pensar un poco más críticamente sobre lo que es la frontera. [Audiodescripción] Alisha se sienta sonriendo. Su barbilla descansa sobre sus muletas. Al fondo, una vista panorámica de la soleada Tucson. [Narrador] Relatos de la frontera, producido por Arizona Disability Law Center y Rooted in Rights. Financiado por Borealis Philanthropy. FIN DE LA TRANSCRIPCIÓN

[Narrador] "Relatos de la frontera", historias de personas con discapacidad que viven en la frontera Estados Unidos - México. [Audiodescripción] Un escenario de paisajes áridos y ciudades. Luego, un hombre con gafas de sol y auriculares es entrevistado a distancia sobre el fondo de un mapa. Es doblado al español por un actor de doblaje. [Daniel] Hola, me llamo Daniel Martínez y soy de Brownsville, Texas. Me identifico como un hombre chicano. Tengo 31 años. Soy educador y mentor. Participo en diferentes programas que trabajan con familias de estudiantes con discapacidades. Me gusta tocar música, bailar y hacer arte. [Audiodescripción] Foto de Daniel desde atrás caminando con un bastón al lado de un niño pequeño. [Daniel] Hace seis meses fui padre, así que mucha de la música que toco y escucho está orientada a los niños y mi bebé se divierte mucho. [Audiodescripción] Un mapa monocromático de América del Norte se amplía para mostrar una línea fronteriza roja entre Brownsville y Matamoros. [Daniel] Nací y me crié en Brownsville, Texas. Mi familia viene de Matamoros, México, y estas son ciudades fronterizas. Ciudades fronterizas, significa que puedo vivir lo mejor de ambos mundos, de una manera u otra. Mi mujer y mi hijo nacieron en Matamoros, y voy y vuelvo con bastante frecuencia. [Audiodescripción] Tramos de un río se curvan a través de una ciudad baja salpicada de frondosos árboles. [Daniel] Brownsville, Texas, es un lugar muy tranquilo. La mayoría somos hispanos. Como individuo ciego, tengo grandes expectativas para mi comunidad. Por desgracia, no siempre es el lugar más accesible. Sin embargo, estoy descubriendo que, al comunicarme con los líderes de la comunidad, están prestando atención, y quiero involucrarme más para marcar la diferencia en mi comunidad. [Audiodescripción] Un cruce de calles de un pequeño pueblo. Luego, un mercado esquinero con vibrantes carteles pintados a mano en español. [Daniel] Matamoros es un lugar hermoso, no visualmente, sino culturalmente. La música, la comida y la gente, son bastante atractivas, pero podría decirte que espero mucho menos de Matamoros que de Brownsville. [Audiodescripción] Una foto de una bandera mexicana ondeando en un edificio estatal. [Daniel] México tiene leyes no discriminatorias. Sin embargo, a las personas con discapacidad no se les conceden esos derechos. [Audiodescripción] Una mujer en silla de ruedas junto al alto muro fronterizo de hierro. [Daniel] Es como si no existieran. Y eso es bastante lamentable. Pero cuando salgo, la gente es bastante respetuosa, y eso es lo que me gusta, que no están obligados a no discriminarme, pero normalmente no lo hacen. [Audiodescripción] Multitud de personas con máscaras forman filas entre sólidas vallas. [Daniel] A inicios de 2021, empecé a preguntar a los funcionarios de mi ciudad qué estaban haciendo para conseguir vacunas para las personas con discapacidad, y escuché grillos. Luego supe de una organización, Down By The Border. [Audiodescripción] Página web de Down By The Border, con el lema "Una asociación que ayuda a los niños con necesidades especiales". [Daniel] Estaban haciendo lo mismo. Preguntaban a la ciudad por qué las personas con discapacidad no recibían servicios. Cuando me puse en contacto con la organización, enseguida me reclutaron para formar parte de su programa de divulgación. Y es lamentable que la ciudad dijera básicamente que no tenía la mano de obra necesaria para llegar a las personas con discapacidad. Down By The Border dio un paso adelante y prestó ese servicio. Pero en realidad, la ciudad debería haberse encargado de ello. [Audiodescripción] Foto de Daniel de pie con un bastón blanco y con traje y corbata. [Daniel] Las personas con discapacidad no forman parte de la conversación cuando se habla de situaciones en la frontera. Me gustaría que la narrativa relativa a las discapacidades mejorara. La forma de mejorarla sería que la gente de ambos lados de la frontera fuera consciente de las necesidades de las personas con discapacidad. [Narrador] Relatos de la frontera, producido por Arizona Disability Law Center y Rooted in Rights. Financiado por Borealis Philanthropy. FIN DE LA TRANSCRIPCIÓN

Transcript of "Faces of Solitary: Joseph" produced by Avid and Rooted in Rights JOSEPH: My name is Joseph Roberts. I'm a prisoner here in the Department of Corrections. It's been five- like, it’s going on almost six years. So it's been five years and counting. They're not going to let me out of the hole. They never gonna let me out the hole. They’re never going to let me out the hole because I have behavioral problems. I wasn't like that when I was on mainline. I think that's important to say. I was not like that. [Audio Description] At the end of a hallway. Joseph, in a blue smock and handcuffs, is escorted by four correctional officers who press him to his knees. (JOSEPH): When we are struggling, then they throw us in the hole and then we get infracted. And then as a result of the infraction they say, “Oh, you lost your points and now you're maxed out.” I'm treated like an animal. It's like- it makes me feel like something’s wrong with me. And then they’ve got two officers escorting you. I mean, is it really that necessary? Two officers? You’re already cuffed up. [Audio Description] Joseph, now with leg cuffs is walked down the hallway by two correctional officers. Two more follow with waist restraints. (JOSEPH): It is torture it’s psychological torture. It can be physical torture, too, because you have panic attacks and it starts to just press on your body. It is every day, all day. And honestly, I have not seen them really make any changes. They need to focus on the mentally ill guys like myself, because we- there's times when we simply can't help it. They need to stop punishing us for infractions that are attributed. They need to have our mental health involved with it. They don't have that right now. They say they do, but they don’t. I'm telling you. They say they do, they don’t. Legislators, you guys see this, Please make a change. We're people. I'm just like you. Even though I'm like, I'm going through a hard time. You know, We're supposed to be getting rehabilitated. How am I being rehabilitated at this point? I'm in here rotting. Rotting. This doesn't serve any justice. This is- this is a systemic failure. Like, for real. Yeah.

Transcript of "Advocacy Video Series - Part 1" produced by Rooted in Rights ALLEXA: Do you have a story to share but you don't know where to start? Hi, I'm Allexa from Rooted in Rights, and we tell disability stories by and for disabled people. I'm a White woman with brown hair, and I'm wearing yellow heart-shaped glasses. We're going to be sharing a series with you all, about how to make your own advocacy video. There's lots of different ways that you can share stories. You can share it in a podcast, you can write a letter to a legislator, but at Rooted and Rights, we mainly do it using video stories, so we want to share tips and tools with you all for how you can do that too. Storytelling can be a really effective advocacy tool because it allows you to connect your personal experience with larger systemic issues. For folks with disabilities like me and my team, oftentimes the stories told about us are wrong, and being able to share your own story is an opportunity to change the narrative. You are the expert of your own experience and your story is important. So if you want to know how to structure a story, how to script it, how to film it using your mobile phone, how to edit with some free editing tools, and how to make all of that content accessible, follow our series, and we're going to show you how. Check out our existing stories at RootedInRights.org /Storytellers, and follow us for the rest of the advocacy video series. End of transcript.

"The Right to be Rescued" produced by Rooted in Rights [rising music, slow guitar strumming] [audio description]: Ocean waves crash towards camera, and recede, partially covering the lens. ADRIEN: No disasters are natural. When you know in advance who is likely to be the most harmed by a disaster and you don't do anything about it, then that is a choice. It's about whose lives are more valuable and which ones aren't as valuable. [NARRATOR]:Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans 2005. [audio description]: Aerial view of flooded neighborhoods, with water nearly up to the roofs. JEANNE: People with disabilities did definitely get stuck here, many people died...which was horrendous and should never happen. RICKII: No one knew what to do for the city in general, let alone a population of people who are normally overlooked. [audio description]: A woman on the street after the storm speaks to a news camera. KATRINA SURVIVOR: They’re not doing nothing. They're not telling us nothing, they’re not doing nothing. We've been out here...look at all these old people...they out here without their medication...they're in wheelchairs. We need help, sir, we really need help! [audio description]: A bridge full of people escaping the storm, including a man using a wheelchair. ADRIEN: It is foreseeable that people with disabilities are going to have a harder time evacuating, they're going to have a harder time receiving information about the disaster. [audio description]: A man sleeps in a wheelchair, alone at the side of a river. An older woman is helped by a stranger, while a man in a wheelchair slumps over. ADRIEN: That's essentially a choice, saying that we as a society are okay with people with disabilities not surviving, or suffering much more so than people without disabilities in the event of a disaster. [audio description]: View from underwater, sunlight shines through the surface. RICKII: I don't to be overlooked in that way. We're already overlooked in so many other things but for emergencies, everybody should be included in the plan properly. JEANNE: People have a right to be rescued, so that they don't perish just because they have a disability. [audio description]: Water rushes towards camera. [NARRATOR]: The Right to be Rescued. [slow piano music] [NARRATOR]: Nearly half a million people with disabilities lived in the counties and parishes affected by Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Source: Centers for Disease Control 2006. JEANNE: My name is Jeanne Abadie and I work for The Advocacy Center, which is the Protection and Advocacy (P&A) organization in Louisiana. In 2005, New Orleans had nothing special for anybody to be rescued, it was just: Get out of town! So, of course, many people could not get out of town either because of disability, they had a family member with a disability or they had no money. [audio description]: Houses destroyed by the storm. JEANNE: More affordable, medium income, to low income areas of the city were hit the hardest. People in poverty have a harder time getting out, and it just so happens that there's a large percentage of people with disabilities that live in poverty. [NARRATOR]: Rickii Ainey, Disability Rights Advocate. RICKII: You have to think about every single aspect of life. I think a little bit more than most people who can jump in their car and pack their kids up and just drive off. You can't do that. You have to see who's going to take you, where you're gonna go, how you're gonna get there. Someone may just have a physical disability like myself, but then you may have someone who is ill with cancer, and you may have someone with asthma, like you have to think of all those types of things. [audio description]: Spanish moss blows in the wind. Earl Robicheaux, Hurricane Katrina survivor. EARL: My name is Earl Robicheaux, I live in Berwick, Lousiana. [audio description]: Earl sits along at his kitchen table, smoking a cigarette. Earl sits in his living room. EARL: I was diagnosed with Burkitt's lymphoma in July of 2005, and eventually placed in Charity Hospital in New Orleans, and then Katrina hit August 29th. I was placed in a special isolation room and that was to prevent infection. The air condition is very low, usually they keep it around 50, 55, to reduce bacteria counts. Hopefully the antibiotics will work. If they don't work, you'll just die. [audio description]: Aerial shot of flooded New Orleans. EARL: It was when the levees broke and the water came that the problems really started occurring. The generators were in the basement, so they got flooded and of course we had no power as a result. So I went from a room that was like 55 degrees, to a room that was like 115 [degrees]. within say, three hours. The only way I could think of surviving the whole thing was to strip down to my underwear and just lay in the bed very still. I was on a gravity drip IV, and I just laid there for five days and watched helicopters fly around the building. So, we were the last, probably the last hospital to be evacuated on day five. First responders were great...it's just that they came there five days later. I feel lucky, I knew it was kinda bad...but I didn't know it was really, really that desperate, you know, for so many people. [audio description]: Aerial footage of houses flooded to their rooftops. RICKII: When we left and we saw the devastation that was going on... there's no way, I know I wouldn't have been able to survive that. I lived in New Orleans East, I stayed on the second floor of my apartment. No one would have been able to come to rescue me because the water had hit so fast that, it was, people who were back there were just stuck. JEANNE: I have a good friend who died, who was on a, who uses a wheelchair and, and was on an overpass for days. [audio description]: Hundreds of people waiting for rescue on an overpass. An old photo of Alene Bonds sitting in her wheelchair, smiling. JEANNE: She didn't die there, but she ended up with complications. She probably died about six months later. It was horrible for many. For people with disabilities, the impact is greater. PAM: My name is Pam Minning, and I used to live in New Orleans. [audio description]: Old photos of Benilda "Benny" Caixeta. PAM: I met Benny when I was about nineteen, 20 years old, the first day that we met was actually in an Italian class and a very sweet voice, she said: “Hi, my name's Benilda, but my friends call me Benny.” and after that she was always Benny, and she was always my friend. She enjoyed life, you know...she loved chocolates and coffee and smoking her cigarettes. [laughs] Benny had a rare form of muscular dystrophy, she used an electric wheelchair. She had no use of her two lower legs, there was no strength in them. One of her arms, she had partial use out of and the other arm she had pretty good strength in. But then as the years progressed, she was losing some of the strength. She could cook. She always lived, of course, on the first floor apartment, she had a shower that she could go into. So joy of life and independence were the two most important things for her personally. She wanted other people with disabilities to have comfortable lives, to make sure that they were protected, that people didn't take advantage of them. She volunteered with a bunch of disability rights organizations. Anything that she could do to get involved, and give back. [audio description]: Powerful wind and rain blow against trees. PAM: She had decided that she was going to evacuate. She had called a company that was supposed to come and get her, and she said that they were going to take her to the Hyatt. I did not get a phone call from her that day, and at first I thought maybe she got busy, who knows why, but I thought well I'm gonna try and call her. [audio description]: Powerful wind and rain continues. PAM: I said, “Benny, What are you doing still there?!” She said, “Pam, they've abandoned me” she said, “Yes, I spoke to the driver,” and I said, “what, why didn't he come and pick you up?” She said, “he told me ‘I can't come and get you, I've got my own family to worry about.’ ” and he hung up on her. The police told Benny that they would take her to the Superdome. They did not want to take her wheelchair or her physical assistant. She physically could not have gotten by without the help of someone and without her wheelchair, she couldn't, she couldn’t have made it. [audio description]: A deserted street on a clear day. PAM: Storm passed, everything seemed okay...I called, and she let out a huge sigh of relief, and we started talking and just kind of relaxing...then all of the sudden, she said that she heard something, she goes, “Wait, I hear something.” and she goes, “Oh my God, water's coming in.” and I could just hear this panic in her voice, and then all of the sudden the phone line cut out. [audio description]: Underwater view looking up at the sunlight. [tense piano music] PAM: I tried calling on her cell phone, I tried all during the day and I could not get through. Her physical assistant called here and said when she last left her, she was in water up to her neck. And that Benny handed her her cell phone and her address book and said, “Call Pam, call the others and tell them I'm dead. There's no reason for two of us to drown.” [audio description]: An aerial view of ruined houses with the water level reaching the rooftop. PAM: Now it's sadness, but for about three years it was anger. It shouldn't happen. [audio description]: Pamphlet with text that reads, "Benilda Caixeta 1954-2005." Sunset over a lake with a ruined pier.

"On the Outs" produced by Rooted in Rights [NARRATOR]: AVID Prison Project - Amplifying Voices of Inmates with Disabilities Eldorado AUDIO DESCRIPTION: A young man sits in a shaded area of a park. He wears glasses and has two braids that fall beneath his shoulders. ELDORADO: My name is Eldorado Fleetwood Cadillac Brown. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Shot of Eldorado existing a white van in handcuffs. (ELDORADO): Today we are in the East Central side of Spokane, in Liberty Park, celebrating my release! Celebrating the day that I did nine years plus in prison, and today's my first day out. [NARRATOR]: Kara AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Fencing and razor wire guard a prison campus. A corrections officer talks to Kara, a woman with long gray hair standing in front of a prison cell. DOC STAFF: This is what's gonna happen, Miss Moser. KARA: What about my meds and the medical equipment I was promised? DOC STAFF: We're gonna have the officer go through the process with you. KARA: Okay. DOC STAFF: You can ask him that question, okay? KARA: Okay, thank you. (DOC STAFF): Yeah. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Kara ways goodbye to inmates offscreen. (INMATES): Bye Kara! Nice to meet you! [NARRATOR]: Tyrone [Intercoms broadcasting in background] AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Shot of Tyrone, a tall man with broad shoulders, who uses a white cane as he pushes through a doorway. TYRONE: From what I understand, they're gonna give me a bus ticket, they're gonna give me a housing voucher, and they gonna give me the phone card, and um, I'll be taken to Pasco, Washington. And from Pasco, I'll board a bus that'll take me to Seattle... [NARRATOR]: On the Outs - ReEntry for Inmates with Disabilities Eldorado 26 Days Before Release AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Spools of razor wire line the perimeter of Monroe Correctional Complex in Monroe, Washington. Eldorado speaks from a holding cell. [chirping birds] ELDORADO: Today is a lock-down day, so that means I'll be stuck inside of a cell about as big as the room that I'm in now, maybe a little bigger 'cause of the bed, for the whole day without being able to come out or shower or use the phone or anything like that. It's like solitary confinement, basically. They don't understand that placing me in the hole exacerbates my mental illness to a whole different degree. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: A professional woman types in an office. ANNA: My name is Anna Guy, and I'm a staff attorney with Disability Rights Washington, on the AVID Prison Project, which stands for Amplifying Voices of Inmates with Disabilities. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Shots of Anna and the AVID prison team monitoring various prisons. ANNA: We set out to determine whether or not there were barriers to reentry specific to people with disabilities, and Eldorado Brown is one of the three people that we followed through the reentry process. Most prisoners face reentry at some point, once they've completed their prison sentence, and knowing that reentry is difficult for everyone, the AVID Prison Project felt that it was likely that it was more difficult for people with disabilities, just due to some of the challenges that people with disabilities face with respect to getting accommodations, and accessing the services they might need. [NARRATOR]: Kara 12 Days Before Release AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Kara is interviewed from inside a holding cell at Washington Corrections Center for Women. (INTERVIEWER): Let's start real easy. Can you tell me your name and where we are today? KARA: Kara Moser, and I'm at WCCW. I had neurosurgery because I had avian brain tumors, and once I got out, a doctor gave me an MRI and I was diagnosed with bilateral hip surgery. I've had my hip replaced here. So I was in the hospital for, I don't even know how long, 'cause the people that are around, weren't-- those people that were around me then, aren't around me now. [Kara cries] KARA: I'm sorry, nobody's really talked to me, like, ever cared about really what's going on, you know? ANNA: Kara has-- reported to have a number of disabilities, and I think that it was challenging for Kara. I think she had a lot of hard time in prison. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Shot of Kara walking down a hallway in prison, with some difficulty. ANNA: I think that it's hard for people who don't have experience with people with disabilities to be compassionate and be patient, and really see the underlying issue, and not just address the immediate emotion that's being expressed. [NARRATOR]: Tyrone 103 Days Before Release TYRONE: My name is Tyrone Gathings and we're in Coyote Ridge Correctional Facility, which is located in Connell, Washington. I have a vision disability. I was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, RP. I was diagnosed with this back in 1979. I do have some vision, but my vision has gradually been taken away. When I first got here to Coyote Ridge it was a challenge for me. I used to go in the other units because I would get lost, you know, I mean I would go inside other peoples' cells because I would get lost. I spend a lot of my time in my cell because it's really hard, especially for somebody with a vision disability. ELDORADO: You know, me not being able to see my daughter, or me not being able to communicate with family, friends, or loved ones as I once did, it created a sense of severe depression that led me to find a release. I needed to find a release. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Shot of Eldorado's scarred wrist with several fresh cuts. ELDORADO: Doctors say that I suffer from nonsuicidal self-injury, NSSI, and that means that I like to cut on myself without the thought of suicide, and I engage in self-harm without the intentions of actually dying. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Shot of Eldorado's other wrist, also covered in scars and several new wounds. ELDORADO: A lot of people in this situation feel like they have no voice, they feel like they have nobody that would actually understand them, whether you're incarcerated or you're in segregation. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: A metal door labeled with the word 'segregation' slides open. KARA: In here I'm locked down 23 hours, but they consider it for my safety, because if you have any kind of suicidal background, which I do, I have five suicide attempts, right... and um, yeah, I've gone through it. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: The interviewer asks Kara if she receives counseling for her suicide attempts. (INTERVIEWER): Did, do they give you counseling for the suicide? KARA: No, uh uh. I never thought of that. I mean, prison is, like, not that hands-on, I mean this is punishment. ANNA: We talk about prison as being this-- it's for punishment, but also there's an expectation that people are being rehabilitated. And the prison has some responsibility over the services the person receives, both in the prison and making those connections out in the community, to make sure that they're successful, and they get the tools they need to find jobs and housing, and be productive members and safe members of our community. TYRONE: No one's here has really done anything to help me get something in concrete as far as my transition back out into the community. They haven't decided where they want to send me. They don't know if they're gonna send me to Cowlitz County, Pierce County, or King County. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Shot of Tyrone walking through a prison hallway as inmates move aside, making way for him and his white cane. TYRONE: And I'm real familiarized with the Pierce County area and the King County area. I know my way around, I use the bus service there, I know not only my mental health doctors but my normal physical doctors, you know, I know where their office is, I know how to ride the bus, the public bus service and get there. I don't know anything about that in Cowlitz County. ANNA: When inmates release, generally the Department requires-- it's a requirement that inmates release to their county of origin, which is where they committed their first offense. That's sort of the first hurdle that people have to get through, is figuring out what they have to support them in that county of origin. ELDORADO: I have 62 criminal charges out of Spokane County, before I was 21. I was involved in a lot of street life activity, a lot of negativity, a lot of the drug game, a lot of gangs. I asked them to change out of Spokane County to Snohomish County, to be able to better adjust. My mom died, my dad's dead. There's nothing in Spokane but family members that smoke crack cocaine. ANNA: One of the other elements of reentry is setting up the supports and services that a person needs once they're on the outside, so that they can be successful, and that's where work release really could come into play. KARA: Work release is when you go and you-- it's still considered a prison facility, and you're able to go work but you report back in. And you know, you're theirs, right, for while you're there. And then you're able to save up a little bit of money. They take a percentage. I asked to go to work release. In my county it's Radcliff, and I did-- I've only been there once, but I did really well there. And they said, "No". TYRONE: Everybody who I arrived here with on the chain bus, they're all employed, all of 'em. If I had my ability to do things as a normal person would, I would've been to work release. If I was at work release right now, I would be-- I would be going over to the vocational rehab center for the blind, I would reconnect with the various resources I have out there. That little buffer before the streets, that really helps. They sent my information in and the work releases have denied me. You know, I'm kind of like in a bad situation right now. ELDORADO: I made it 22 days last time so, I mean, 30 days would be better. You know, if I can make it 30 days this time, I think that that'll be a goal. ANNA: That's not what we want people's reentry success to be. That's not what we're striving for.

“Bottom Dollars Movie Chapter 09” produced by Rooted in Rights [NARRATOR]: Bottom Dollars [quiet electronic music] [NARRATOR]: Chapter nine - "The chance to rise." AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Stephanie Woodward waits for the next question from the interviewer. (INTERVIEWER): So, what am I missing? What haven't I asked you about that's important? STEPHANIE: How do we change it? AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Justin Young speaks to a camera at a protest of Goodwill. JUSTIN: Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act says that people with disabilities can be paid sub-minimum wage. We don't feel that's right. We feel our rights should be honored, just like every other population in this nation. JENSEN: I'm Jensen Caraballo. I'm an activist for disability rights. Protesting isn't something that we do first. We always take other advocacy avenues. Once we know that we're not getting anywhere, we organize actions. You get in people's faces and you let them know this isn't right, we're not gonna stand for this. No pun intended. [Jensen laughs] AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Protesters hold up signs with slogans like, "Sub-minimum equals subhuman." JENSEN: 14(c) certificate under the Fair Labor Standards Act says that people with disabilities are less than everyone else, and we don't deserve to get paid like everyone else, and that's wrong. We have the power to make that change. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Painting on the side of a building in Tiffin, Ohio. Barbara Corner from Disability Rights Ohio. BARBARA: If somebody in a sheltered workshop or their parent or guardian wishes to challenge their wages, they can file a request with the Department of Labor. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Pamela shops for supplies. BARBARA: We decided that we wanted to follow that process. PAMELA: Judges ruled on our behalf, and he feels the same way we do, that we're being mistreated. I make minimum wage now, and I'm happy about that. I wanna be able to move up to where I'm gettin' paid really good. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Pamela threads a needle. PAMELA: I'd like to go back to California. Not sure how much a plane ticket costs nowadays to go there. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Jim Larson from Morningside. JIM: I really had a celebration of closing the sheltered workshop, it was the second-best day of my career. The first one would be sending a letter back to the Federal Department of Labor and saying, "I choose not to renew this certificate." In 2014 we stopped paying sub-minimum wages. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Brendan cleans dishes at work. AMY: New Hampshire was the first in the nation to eliminate sub-minimum wage for people with disabilities. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Charles Biebl walks with his white cane. CHARLES: By the year 2020, Maryland is supposed to phase out paying sub-minimum wages to people with disabilities, you know, blind people and such. And that's a good thing. STEPHANIE: A minimum wage is just that, the minimum any worker should receive. [atmospheric music] [NARRATOR]: 48 states still allow sub-minimum wage. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Gloria Marrero uses sign language. GLORIA (VIA ASL): Oh, yeah, I want to earn more money. Well sure, I'd like to have a little bit more money. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Gloria smiles. Joe plays a bell during church. LE'RON: After I got the check of $2.50 for working in a hot workshop with hot, big fans, I said, "I quit. I can go find me somethin' else to do." AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Theresa watches Dexter work. CHERYL: If individuals are given the proper services and supports, and proper assistive technology, the sky is the limit for many, many individuals. (HUGH): I make $9.59 an hour. Now I get four weeks' vacation. I get paid for my vacation. SARA: I wanna move up more at Children's, in the receiving department. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Le'Ron drives his wheelchair through his office. LE'RON: I went to school. I got my degree. I work with Disability Rights Mississippi. I'm a advocate for people with disabilities. TRUST: I've been working for two years, had multiple-- had great internships and jobs. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Trust holds up his paycheck proudly. TRUST: And it's not just for me, it's not just for me, Trust Jones, who lives in Mississippi. It's to every state. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Joe bags popcorn. Sara at the subway. (TRUST): To the northeast. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Dexter pushes carts. (TRUST): The southwest, the midwest. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Pamela sews. TRUST: I may have a disability, but I can still work. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Photo of President Roosevelt in a wheelchair. (ROOSEVELT): I am still convinced that the American people continue to insist on sincere respect for the need of all people at the bottom who need to get work. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Sara guiding a horse. (ROOSEVELT): And through work, to get a really fair share of the good things of life. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Andy smiling at the bowling alley. Joe skis towards the camera. (ROOSEVELT): And a chance to save and a chance to rise. [uplifting music] [NARRATOR]: Share the full film in your community. Host a screening. BottomDollarsMovie.com AUDIO DESCRIPTION: End credits roll. [NARRATOR]: Produced and directed by Jordan Melograna Executive Producers David Carlson Mark Stroh Cinematography and editing by Jordan Melograna Associate Producer Tina Pinedo Original music by Catrina Melograna Thank you to those who appeared in the film Malanie Oyer Gloria Marrero Mark Riccobono Cheryl Bates-Harris Pamela Steward Barbara Corner Le'Ron Jackson Charles Biebel Roy Rocha James Meadours Betty Williams Stephanie Woodward Tilman Mitchell Dorothy Mitchell Joan Farish Sara Frost Robin Frost Scott Frost Tanya Hart-Newkirk Susan Kas Jim Larson Hugh Bertolin Dexter Smith Yolanda Sandoval-Nez Theresa Jim Andy Owens Cynthia Owens Adam Henry Joe Steffy E.R. Steffy Ray Steffy Janet Steffy Trust Jones Tiffany Boyte Amy Messer Brendan Welch Liz Duncan Justin Young Jensen Caraballo Sound Editor and Mixer Justin Newton Audio Description Narrator Tina Marie Murray Opening titles designed by Moriah Burton Jordan Melograna Production Assistants Courtney Cole Vanessa Link Rebekah Price Cuquis Robledo Paul Schaver Outreach and promotion by Kearsten Holmdale Tina Pinedo Stacie Siebrecht ASL Interpreter Stuart Tennis SignOn Hearing, Speech & Deafness Center Archival footage provided by Rick Ray/Shutterstock Pond5 Additional footage courtesy of Disability Rights Mississippi The National Federation of the Blind Special thanks The National Disability Rights Network Kansas Disability Rights Center of Kansas Ricky Nichols Mike Burgess Louisburg Cider Mill Snow Creek Ski Resort Jennifer Stratton Sonflower Ringers Beverly Williamson Maryland Chris Danielson The National Federation of the Blind Mississippi Bob Boyte Honda Disability Rights Mississippi Gathering Grounds Coffee Shop La Quinta Inn and Suites Vicksburg Ann Maclaine Shirley Walker New Hampshire Boston Children’s Hospital Brian Becquart Andrea Duggan Disability Rights Center - New Hampshire Giddy Up Farm Julia Freeman-Woolpert One Sky Community Services VPNE New Mexico Native American Disability Law Center Coyote Ridge Jessica Jones Walmart Gallup New York The Center for Disability Rights Elizabeth Forbes Ohio Stacy Brannan-Smith Disability Rights Ohio Michael Kirkman Oregon Michelle Afroso Tara Asai Disability Rights Oregon Powell’s Books Sunset Lanes Washington Heather McKimmie Laurie Schindler Morningside Services Stacie Siebrecht Produced with generous support from Disability Rights Washington Rooted in Rights is the author of this motion picture for the purpose of copyright and other laws. This motion picture is protected pursuant to the provisions of the laws of the United States of America and other countries. Any unauthorized duplication and/or exhibition of this motion picture may result in civil liability and criminal prosecution. Produced by Rooted in Rights End of transcript.

“Bottom Dollars Movie Chapter 08” produced by Rooted in Rights [NARRATOR]: Bottom Dollars [mellow atmospheric music] [NARRATOR]: Chapter eight - "I've got the jersey to prove it." AUDIO DESCRIPTION: The Bob Boyte car dealership in Brandon, Mississippi. Minimum wage $7.25 per hour. TRUST: My name's Trust Jones. I'm from Brandon, Mississippi, and I'm 23 years old. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Trust walks through the dealership to a back office. TRUST: Every time, when I come back here, I always go for one thing. My check. I come here to get my check. Best one ever. BOSS: Hey, Trust. TRUST: Hi. BOSS: How are you doing, sir? TRUST: Pretty good, pretty good. BOSS: Very good. TRUST: Thank you. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Trust receives his paycheck from his boss and coworker. TRUST: Every time I come here, this is what I get. (BOSS): He gets paid! TRUST: Every single time. And I love it, I love it. [boss laughs] TRUST: Best job ever. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Trust proudly holds his check over his head. TRUST: My mom worked, my brother worked, my sisters worked, and I knew I had to put in work. My current job is with Bob Boyte Honda. Last check I got, was 324 bucks. The most money ever. Didn't spend it all. CHERYL: We know that there are people with disabilities going to work, but oftentimes we look at that as, "Oh, isn't that remarkable," or "Isn't that incredible." We need to start to recognize that people with disabilities have skills and talents, and we need to encourage those and support those. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Trust's Manager, Tiffany Boyte. TIFFANY: Trust has not only just gotten a job here, I think he's built a purpose within this dealership. He's given us something that we haven't had. We saw very quickly that he was really good with technology. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Trust sits in his cubicle, looking at a Facebook page on his computer. TRUST: My job was to oversee the Facebook and Twitter pages of Bob Boyte. And it was good. We got a lot of feedback, a lot of feedback from customers, a lot of likes. TIFFANY: It is not charity for us at all. I don't think the dealership would be the same without him. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Concord, New Hampshire. Minimum wage $7.25 per hour. AMY: My name is Amy Messer, I'm the Executive Director at the Disability Rights Center in New Hampshire. Oftentimes, people just simply don't understand that individuals with disabilities bring everything to the workplace that everybody without disabilities brings as well. They bring their skills and their talents, their dedication, their collegiality, and so I think people underestimate, actually, the value of employment for people with disabilities to the employer. [mellow atmospheric music] AUDIO DESCRIPTION: The Quality Cash Market, a local grocery store. Brendan Welch. BRENDAN: My name is Brendan, I am 30 years old, I grew up in Concord, yep. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Brendan clocks in. (BRENDAN): I do the floors, I do the soda cooler, the beer cooler, the dishes, and anything else they want me to do. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Brendan works quickly in different parts of the store. Brendan's manager, Liz Duncan. LIZ: Brendan has a really good approach with people. He takes a lot of pride into what he's doing, and so, when he wants to, and we try give him a little bit more responsibility, he does get really nervous, but we just kind of coach him along, and he really does take responsibility very well. He likes to joke around a lot, which, we all-- we're good with it, you know. BRENDAN: Sometimes people call me a pain in the butt because I can be a pain in the butt. It's all family, they treat me as a family member. AMY: If you talk to employers who have individuals with disabilities employed in their workplace, you're gonna hear a lot of really positive stories. LIZ: I've had several people who have had disabilities come in and ask for a job. And it's not as-- fill out an application. If I know that you're qualified, I'm gonna hire you. BRENDAN: I like the people, I like conversation, and I like to be friendly with everybody. TRUST: It's great, I interact with customers, I talk to the workers. I get paid. I love it. BRENDAN: Sometimes I take my mom out to lunch on Sunday, or I take her out to dinner. TRUST: My favorite team is the Pittsburg Steelers, and I've got the trunks, the jersey, the backpack, and the cap to prove it. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Trust walks back to his desk. TRUST: The internet department. TIFFANY: I could not imagine those two in a sheltered workshop. You wouldn't go do a job that would pay you a dollar on the hour or something like that, because you're worth more. They're worth more. [slow electronic music] [NARRATOR]: Share the full film in your community. Host a screening. BottomDollarsMovie.com End of transcript.

“Bottom Dollars Movie Chapter 07” produced by Rooted in Rights [NARRATOR]: Bottom Dollars [mid-tempo electronic music] [NARRATOR]: Chapter seven - "The Joe-Hawk." AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Joe skis down the ski slope. Joe skis by, giving two thumbs up. Joe uses an iPad to speak. JOE (VIA IPAD): My name is Joe Steffy. I own Poppin Joe's Kettle Corn. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: A banner reads, "I love Poppin Joe's." Joe dumps the kettle corn popper. (JOE): As a business owner, I must be able to produce every type of popcorn product that I sell and complete the daily business tasks. This includes the weekly deliveries. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Joe places bags of his popcorn on shelves in a small store. JOE: I am always active and love being busy. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Joe looks up from his iPad and gives a thumbs up. Joe plays a bell in his church choir and then plays basketball with E.R. E.R.: My name is E.R., he's my uncle. I live with him and I help take care of him. The Joe-Hawk, yeah, everywhere he goes he'll go like this, and he wants everyone to know that he has a Joe-Hawk. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: E.R. rubs the center of his head in reference to Joe's mohawk. Joe shoots and makes two baskets in a row. The rolling hills of Louisburg, Kansas. Minimum wage $7.25 per hour. JOE: I was 14 years old, my parents and I met with my school transition team. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Ray and Janet Steffy. RAY: And basically what they told us was, "We don't know why we need to set up a plan," and that basically, "Joe has no attention span, he can't keep on task, he probably-- he will never hold a job, so why do we need to make a plan?" AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Photos of Joe as a younger man. JOE: You know the greatest disability there is? It is low expectation. They had no expectations for me. JANET: We were known as parents with great expectations, that were in denial of how serious the disabilities were that we were facing. RAY: This ticked me off, in that I was going to prove to these people my son could work. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Joe pours out popcorn from a kettle. RAY: There was a workshop, and we went in there to observe what they did and that kind of thing. And basically, what we saw in there wasn't what we wanted Joe to go through, and basically not get paid for doing it anyways. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: The Kansas farm. Cattle grazing in the background. (JANET): I grew up on a farm, we milked cows, there were cows there, there were chickens there, and so there was a lot to do. You knew where you fit in. So, I expected that out of my kids. (RAY): We needed to find something that we could do as a family. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Joe, Ray, and E.R. working in the backyard. RAY: We didn't even know what kettle corn was at that time. We went on a cruise to Alaska, and it was in Anchorage, Alaska, on a Saturday during market day, and there was this business there that was popping popcorn. We watched them pop and sell and everything, and there was a variety of jobs within the business. You could pop the corn, you could bag the corn, you could help sell the corn, all those were different phases. Well I thought this would be ideal for Joe, because when he got tired of one, he could move to another one, whichever one he wanted to do. JOE: I learned by watching and would do exactly as I saw it done. RAY: Which comes down to what customized employment is. [NARRATOR]: Customized employment. (RAY): Janet went to classes to learn how to write a business plan. We submitted that to the DD Council in Kansas, which-- at that time they were supporting people starting their own business, so they gave him all new equipment. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Joe making, bagging, and delivering the kettle corn. RAY: And then we went to Social Security through their PASS Plan. They supported the finances of his business by giving him cashflow money to make the business work for an 18-month period of time, and then we also got equipment from the vocational rehab people for a computer and a printer to make labels. And so that's how we got started, and on the fifth day of April in 2005, the business became Joe's business, and he was the sole proprietor of that business, and has been 'til this day. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Photo of Joe proudly holding papers in his hand. RAY: We help manage the business. People say, "Well, how does he do his accounting?" Well, like any other business. If you don't do accounting, then you hire an accountant. So that's what we do, we hire the people that are needed to run specific parts of the business. But basically, Joe is the owner of the business. [soft uplifting music] AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Joe and Ray wear matching tie-dye bandanas as they work at a stand selling popcorn. JOE: Festivals average three weekends each month, April through October. I have several retail outlet stores where I supply products on a weekly basis, as well as internet sales. JANET: Say we're out shopping. Somebody will see him, and they'll say, "Are you Poppin Joe?" And you can just see Joe stands up straighter and gets a big smile, and he knows he's Poppin Joe. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Exterior of Joe's house. (JANET): And the business has given him the opportunity to rent his own place, pay utilities, he buys his own food, he's not on any subsidy for food or housing or utilities. He pays his own way, and then he gets to choose the activities that he likes. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Joe skis to the ski lift. Ray and Janet look on as Joe takes the lift up. (RAY): When we're gone, then the business could go ahead and support him in the same manner. What we would like to see is to bring on a person who would be interested in being a partner in the business, doing the management part of the business, and Joe would keep the capacity that he has as being an owner. (JANET): On a farm, it's a team effort. You all pull together to make it happen. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: In the backyard, the family works together making kettle corn. (JANET): We expected Joe to be a part of it, to do the part he could do, from the very beginning. [slow electronic music] [NARRATOR]: Share the full film in your community. Host a screening. BottomDollarsMovie.com End of transcript.

“Bottom Dollars Movie Chapter 06” produced by Rooted in Rights [NARRATOR]: Bottom Dollars [energetic electronic music] [NARRATOR]: Chapter six - "Yes, there were a lot." AUDIO DESCRIPTION: A van drives down a tree-covered street in Portland, Oregon. Minimum wage $10.25 per hour. ANDY (VIA IPAD): My name is Andy Owens. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Andy is in his wheelchair, using an iPad to speak. ANDY: A lot of kids I went to school with went into sheltered workshops when they graduated and left school. I said, "No way for me!" I was not going to go there. I started my job five days after school got out. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Andy smiles and points forward as his assistant pushes his wheelchair. ANDY: I work at Powell's Bookstore. I will have worked there for 15 years in June 2016. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Andy arrives at his workstation among countless shelves of books. CYNTHIA: I am Cynthia Owens, and I am Andy's mom. He had a near-drowning accident, which caused traumatic brain injury. It's also called acquired cerebral palsy because he was so young when he had that happen. He was in a coma for seven months after his accident, and then in the hospital for about two and a half years. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Photo of Andy as a baby, smiling. A tube is attached to his neck. CYNTHIA: The doctors didn't give me very much hope for him. They said, "You know, if he comes out of the coma, or when he comes out of the coma, he'll be a vegetable," and that was the word they used. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Photo of Andy as a young man, smiling. CYNTHIA: And I know all of those doctors are probably retired now, but I'd someday like to just show them what the results of all of that was. ANDY: My mom had a person centered plan done while I was in high school. We came up with all the strengths, gifts, and talents I have. Yes, there were a lot. [NARRATOR]: Person centered plan. CYNTHIA: A person centered plan is when you're really focusing on the individual, you have a facilitator of that person centered plan who knows how to do that. You'd usually try to get a group of people together who know the individual well, who can help create a plan that has a lot of positiveness to the plan, so you're looking for strengths, you're looking for what gifts they bring, you do look at their challenges. ANDY: We narrowed it down to things I might be able to do using switches. We knew I could control my head and that I could use a switch, then we just needed to find a job that I could do requiring a switch. CYNTHIA: With a person centered plan, you've got a list of things that a job developer or a job coach could take with them to really go out there and try to help that individual find a job. They approached Powell's, which-- you know, they went into Powell's, they saw how Powell's scans the books with the barcodes when people buy these, and what they had to do when they were selling them in the store. They talked to them about, "Gosh, we've got this individual who would be really interested in working." ANDY: I am good at my job. Powell's knows I am a dependable employee. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Andy in front of his workstation. His assistant operates the computer. Adam Henry, Andy's assistant. ADAM: I've been working with Andy full time for about a month and a half now. When we're at work, I log him in, read his emails, and then I get his iPad ready 'cause he likes to listen to music while we're working. ANDY: I scan inventory to be shipped to stores for online pickup. ADAM: His head switch comes in right here, he's got a little battery back here that powers his head switches. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Adam points out wires that run from Andy's wheelchair to a computer-controlled conveyor belt. ANDY: When I am processing the books, I use assistive technology to help me do what I cannot do physically. I use sensitive head switches that control my book loader and conveyor belt. The loader puts the books onto the conveyor belt, which brings them to the scanner in front of me. It scans the barcode on the pricing label, I verify the information on the screen while my assistant offloads the books. The books are then taken to the shipping department. CYNTHIA: He saw his older brother and sister go to work at his age, and that's what he wanted, he wanted to go to work. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Andy advances his book loader with his head switch. ANDY: I earn $13.95 an hour. CYNTHIA: Which is considerably higher than minimum wage. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Adam points to a calendar with the number of books for each day. (ADAM): Last year Andy processed 53,758 books. CYNTHIA: I realize that there's a lot of families who may not have opportunity with time to be able to do what we've done. This was not something anybody really taught me, it was something that we really had to go figure out, it was a lot of trial and error. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Cheryl Bates-Harris from National Disability Rights Network. CHERYL: We know how to support people in employment, we know how to get people with significant disabilities jobs, we're just not spending the money on doing it properly. [NARRATOR]: Vocational Rehabilitation. CHERYL: Vocational Rehabilitation gets money specifically to provide services to people with disabilities, so that they can obtain, maintain, or regain employment consistent with their abilities, strengths, interests, and priorities. CYNTHIA: A lot of what we've gotten has been paid for by Vocational Rehabilitation. CHERYL: There's no question that the return on investment for individuals who actually get real jobs and real wages is great. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Andy and his friends at a bowling alley. ANDY: I want to work because I earn a paycheck, buy things, have friends, pay taxes, get a discount on all the books I want, and feel useful. I value my job and know how I lucky I am to have a great job. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: A ramp is next to his wheelchair, allowing him to push a bowling ball into the lane. CYNTHIA: I think what Andy has taught me is that I can't hold him back, and that's what I was doing when I didn't think that he could do these things. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: after knocking down nine pins, Andy smiles. [slow electronic music] [NARRATOR]: Share the full film in your community. Host a screening. BottomDollarsMovie.com End of transcript.

“Bottom Dollars Movie Chapter 05” produced by Rooted in Rights [NARRATOR]: Bottom Dollars [atmospheric music] [NARRATOR]: Chapter five - "My mother didn't think I could do it..." AUDIO DESCRIPTION: A green lawn in front of the Capitol building in Olympia, Washington. Minimum wage $11.00 per hour. Hugh Bertolin walks down the street. HUGH: I'm Hugh Bertolin, I used to work at Morningside sheltered workshop, I was making less than minimum wage. (INTERVIEWER): And how long did you work at the sheltered workshop? HUGH: About 15, yeah, about 15 years. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: A sign reading, "Morningside, Everybody Works Everybody Wins." JIM: My name is Jim Larson, and I'm the CEO of Morningside. Morningside's always been a very successful program, and a very innovative program, but I think, while we say we focus on the individual, early on in our history through sheltered employment, I'm not sure if that's true. A professor at the University of Oregon brought up his students and they did a survey of all of our [people] in sheltered employment. So, 80% of the people wanted to work in the community, and we had about 20% of the people indicated that maybe staying there or something else would have been better for them. First you're kind of shocked, saying, "80%? That's a lot, I was sure more people would wanna be here." But that's the only option they had, and I think that's the other thing with choice, so if you only have one choice, what are your options? What is your exposure to work? You don't have any exposure to work. So, it seems to me that when you have that exposure and that choice, then there's other options than going to a sheltered workshop. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Hugh waits to cross the street. Disability Rights Washington sign. SUSAN: My name is Susan Kas, and I'm a staff attorney at Disability Rights Washington. The whole concept of a sheltered workshop was based on a charitable notion and a notion of giving people opportunities that didn't otherwise exist, and so it has roots that run deep and have been around for several decades. The call to end sub-minimum wage, and to end the practice of sheltered work, is a call that almost universally is to transition, and to phase out this practice. (JIM): Well, 2004 was a real exciting time here at Morningside, it's 'cause we had a celebration on June 24th to close the sheltered workshop, and we called it 'Bridge to the Community celebration’, and so it was a culmination of really a five-year plan to close the sheltered workshop. So out of the 120 people in sheltered employment, we found spots for most everybody. Hugh Bertolin was one of our first people that got placed out of our sheltered workshop program. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Hugh approaches an Albertsons store. HUGH: I was hoping I could be like a courtesy clerk, and then I finally became a courtesy clerk at Albertsons. Morningside got it for me. I like bagging the groceries, I have some friends there who I see, our customers, I see my fellow workers. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Hugh chats with his coworker. (HUGH): I work Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. (INTERVIEWER): How long have you worked there? HUGH: 19 years. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Hugh smiles while standing under the Albertsons sign. JIM: And there's probably eight people or so that didn't make a transition. Of the eight, six people were referred to a community access program, and I think two people decided to retire. And of the six or so people that we found another option for, all of the parents, all of the parents were upset at me. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Mark Riccobono from the National Federation of the Blind. MARK: Parents of people with disabilities, I think, are the group that this subject is hardest for. I feel bad that we have not gotten to them earlier. They have thought the notion that this model of, quote, work, is really the thing that defines what the future can be like for their child. HUGH: Well, my mother didn't think I could do it. But I did. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Hugh bags groceries. JIM: Having somebody sit all day, putting together a nut and a bolt, isn't necessarily a positive thing, in my opinion. Matter of fact, I think oftentimes that had a more detrimental effect on a client than it had a positive effect. 'Cause oftentimes our people didn't wanna be there, they knew it wasn't real work, they weren't getting paid for it, or paid appropriately for it, and it causes a lot of issues. [gentle guitar strumming] AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Desert landscape in Galllup, New Mexico. Minimum wage $7.50 per hour. DEXTER: My name is Dexter Smith. I listen to old country music. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Dexter browses music. DEXTER: Sometimes I like to go to rodeo. That's all I do. I used to be working in a workshop, like buttons, janitorial. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Dexter walks through a dry yard. Downtown Gallup. YOLANDA: My name is Yolanda Sandoval-Nez, and I'm a Senior Advocate with the Native American Disability Law Center. For Navajo especially, is that families aren't well familiar, or I guess you could say they're not educated to where they can guide the kids to different opportunities, but it doesn't mean that they don't love them. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Wide shots of the dry New Mexico landscape. YOLANDA: I think the families did here the best that they can. I was able to go to these sheltered workshops and tell these individuals that you do have rights, you have a right to go and explore. You don't have to stay in a sheltered workshop. Dexter's one I worked with. DEXTER: I work at Walmart, pushing cart. Sometimes helping people. I love my job, it's pretty good. YOLANDA: With sheltered workshops you're kind of held to a level where they think you can't do very much, but I think when Dexter went out in the community, it gave him that opportunity to explore a lot more than when they were kind of left in a sheltered workshop. [atmospheric music] AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Dexter smiles as he drives an electric shopping cart through the parking lot. [NARRATOR]: Supported employment. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Cheryl Bates-Harris from National Disability Rights Network. CHERYL: Supported employment has been around for almost 30 years, and supported employment was a model where you identify an appropriate job and you place the individual on the job and then train them as to how to perform specific tasks for that job, using supports that could include a job coach. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Theresa watches Dexter as he works at Walmart. THERESA: My name is Theresa Jim, I'm the job coach for Dexter Smith. A job coach means the individuals are working out in the community. I have to coach them to monitor and make sure they do their task. He does a really good job, he's a hard-working person, doesn't call in sick, he keeps himself busy, and he likes to help out customers and his coworkers. DEXTER: I get paid every Thursday. Every Thursday, that's when I get paid. Just put it back in the bank for myself, I've got a banking account. JIM: When I brought these business leaders together and talked to them about closing the sheltered workshop, somebody said, "Well, you need to have a sheltered workshop." And these are people that were social workers in the community, and people in the medical profession. "Well, you need a sheltered workshop. What else are they gonna do?" Well, I had to really explain to them that everybody can work. Maybe work isn't a program for somebody, and that's fine, maybe work-- while I think everybody can get a job, there are some people that don't wanna work. If they wanna work, then our job is to find them a job. Last year we placed over 200 people in jobs, which is a huge number. SUSAN: If we want to phase out sheltered work because we don't believe it has a place in our modern economy, then we have to make our modern economy make a place for people with disabilities to work and contribute and earn a living the same way as everyone else. [slow electronic music] [NARRATOR]: Share the full film in your community. Host a screening. BottomDollarsMovie.com

“Bottom Dollars Movie Chapter 04” produced by Rooted in Rights [NARRATOR]: Bottom Dollars [gentle plucking music] [NARRATOR]: Chapter four - "Been down there too long." AUDIO DESCRIPTION: A trailer home in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Minimum wage $7.25 per hour. TILLMAN: My name is Tillman Mitchell, and I live in Vicksburg, Mississippi, with my mom and my little brother. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Dorothy holds up a family photo. DOROTHY: My name's Dorothy Mitchell, Tillman's my son. Grew up, real nice kid, graduated and everything from high school. It was after graduation, about, think a couple of months later, they signed him up for Midd West, and they started him out there. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: A 14(c) certificate for Midd West. JOAN: My name is Joan Farish, I work at Midd West Industries. It is a sheltered workshop. Participants are actually able to come on site every day, and they work, we recycle paper and plastics. DOROTHY: I said, "Well, that's nice, he'll be able to get out the house, won't have to sit around the house all the time." He find something to do with hisself. TILLMAN: It's okay. (INTERVIEWER): Why is it only okay? AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Tillman closes his eyes and looks down. [Tillman hums contemplatively] TILLMAN: It's just, it's okay. [NARRATOR]: School transition plan. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Cheryl Bates-Harris from National Disability Rights Network. CHERYL: Schools are supposed to develop a transition plan for individuals with disabilities, so that when they exit the school system they either go to work or some other appropriate post-school activities. We know from our work doing sheltered workshop monitoring around the country that most of these individuals go directly from the school system to the sheltered workshop. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Mark Riccobono from the National Federation of the Blind. MARK: As soon as they get ready to graduate, we give them an opportunity through the transition programs to go tour the sheltered workshop and say, "Look at this, this is great." AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Stephanie Woodward from the Center for Disability Rights. STEPHANIE: You'll see the richer high schools have so many more resources, and then the poorer areas... What do we do? Oh, sheltered workshop. CHERYL: So their thinking is that if they go to the sheltered workshop, they will get the services and supports that they need there to move into post-school activities. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen. What they end up with is a sub-minimum wage job in a segregated setting without the opportunity to talk about real work. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Jackson, Mississippi. LE'RON: My name is Le'Ron Jackson. When I was in the sheltered workshop, they had me bending over, putting clothes in a barrel. I have CP, so I couldn't bend over and then get myself back up. It took me a while to get myself back up, or I had to ask somebody to get me up so I could reposition myself and then pick up some clothing, and then bend back down to put it in the barrel. That's real demeaning. When they matched me up with the workshop, it was supposed to be just for a limited time, but as you can see, some people get stuck. STEPHANIE: Looking at the reality, you will find someone in a sheltered workshop today who's been in that same sheltered workshop for years. So if this is a job training program, I'm not sure how long it takes to train someone, but I think it's a bit excessive. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Tillman's trailer home. TILLMAN: I went, I worked at Midd West 15 years. The first job I had, and I've been down there too long. DOROTHY: So they said they was gonna find him a job, and they did that. (INTERVIEWER): When did they say they were gonna find him a job? DOROTHY: Uh..they started last year, looking for him one. TILLMAN: I went down for my interview, they told me I got a job, and then I liked it. I clean up. Sweep, vacuum the floor, and then wipe down the vending area, pull the trash. And I love it because I like to work out in the community, make good friends, new people, get paid more money, $7.25 an hour. Help my family and them out. [gentle plucking music] AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Tillman vacuuming the floor at a hotel. Timeline shows Tillman's training in a sheltered workshop leading to a part-time job after 15 years. (INTERVIEWER): So why did it take 15 years for Tillman? DOROTHY: I have no idea. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Tillman takes out the hotel's trash. DOROTHY: Wish they would've had started training him in school to do things like this, how to go out and get a job on your own, probably could have gotten one right after. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Tillman wipes down the soda machine. MARK: We've set up a pipeline to sheltered employment that starts at a very young age, where we start working with children with disabilities and telling them how limited they are. STEPHANIE: Well, there's a ton of alternatives. We could start with a transition plan that-- with teachers and parents all getting together and understanding that this person has more value than 25 cents. [cheery bell music] AUDIO DESCRIPTION: A two-story house in South Hampton, New Hampshire. Minimum wage $7.25 per hour. Sara Frost. SARA: I am Sara, I am 23 years old, almost 24. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Sara commutes to work by train early in the morning. (SARA): I'm in the shipping and receiving at the Boston Children's Hospital. When we first get there, we will have our meetings, then we'll start delivering all the packages, all 13 floors. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Sara pulls a cart of boxes through the hallway in fast motion. (SARA): It's super busy all day. It is a tough job, but, doing pretty awesome. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Sara's house. (SCOTT): My name is Scott Frost. ROBIN: I'm Robin Frost, we are Sara's parents, yep. We live in this little town on the seacoast of New Hampshire, which you could basically throw a rock and hit Massachusetts. Though Sara was in this community, she wasn't part of it, she didn't have any friends, she wasn't-- she was never picked for any teams, she-- small school, everyone would get off the bus to go to a birthday party, and she was still sitting on the school bus, and, she got that, and granted, Sara has more advantages, the end of the day, she does have disabilities. I felt that she deserved more, and I could do better. (TONYA): My name's Tonya Hart Newkirk, and I am the PDMS Account Manager for One Sky, and I also am a Service Coordinator. Sara has some real goals ever since she was little, I think around the age nine or 10 is when she started talking, and one of the things she always talked about was really wanting to work at a hospital, specifically Children's in Boston, and we have our transition team here at One Sky that works with adults, starting at age 14 until they turn 21, so that transition team and the high school had brought this program to Sara and her family's attention, and they all had decided that that would be a good fit for Sara. ROBIN: One Sky Community Services did support her with what they called vocational training, more vocational training, and then still wanting just a little bit more, we sent her to the Institute of Community Inclusion at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, Mass., and there is where she did her internship at Children's, and then was hired by Children's. SARA: If I didn't have any access to those programs, I'll be just sitting at home doing nothing. And I don't like doing nothing all day. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Timeline showing Tillman's 15 years at a sheltered workshop. Below, a second timeline shows Sara's internships leading to a full-time job in only five years. A coworker slides a heavy box to Sara. COWORKER: Can you handle it? SARA: Yes. COWORKER: I know you can. SARA: I am super proud of my job because I love being at my job, getting me going. [gentle plucking music] SARA: See you tomorrow. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Sara wheels her cart out of the mailroom. JOAN: When our kids get out of school, a lot of them, where else do they have to go but to come to the workshop, because they have an opportunity to learn, to be trained. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Tillman holds up a photo of himself at graduation. LE'RON: When I was in the sheltered workshop, they told me, "Well, this getting you ready for a job." I said, "I'm already ready for a job." [slow electronic music] [NARRATOR]: Share the full film in your community. Host a screening. BottomDollarsMovie.com End of transcript.

“Bottom Dollars Movie Chapter 03” produced by Rooted in Rights [NARRATOR]: Bottom Dollars Chapter three - "Pennies per hour." [sad piano music] AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Row houses line the street of Baltimore, Maryland. Minimum wage $8.75 per hour. CHARLES: There's no reason to pay us less than the minimum wage. I'm Charles Biebl, I'm from Baltimore, Maryland. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Charles leaves his house using his white cane. CHARLES: I went to the school for the blind all through high school. I was very enthused about working, I wanted to work, and it certainly wasn't what I hoped it would have been. They wanted to throw me in a workshop, a sheltered workshop, and forget about me, and that's what they basically did. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Cheryl Bates-Harris from National Disability Rights Network. CHERYL: I think they persist for a number of reasons. Number one, they're well-funded. There's a pre-vocational service under Medicaid that basically pays for people to go somewhere for seven or eight hours a day. The provider agency is being paid for their mere presence in the workshop, usually on a daily basis. There is a program called AbilityOne. Because the federal government is the largest purchaser of goods and services, this program gives preferential contracts to organizations that employ people with significant disabilities. So, these service providers can basically be guaranteed a lifelong contract. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Mark Riccobono from the National Federation of the Blind. MARK: So, you get all these government programs that really create a great incentive for employers, with the theory that they're there to help people with disabilities, but when you add them all up, they simply serve to shelter people with disabilities and to keep them limited in what they can do. CHERYL: As the providers have gotten more sophisticated, and actually say that they want to teach people job skills. They look to businesses in the community to provide work to them. (MARK): Of course you can pay people with disabilities less than the minimum wage, so you have a built-in competitive advantage to the price of the workforce that you provide. CHARLES: They had contracts like that, of course the workshop would bid on different items, and of course the workshop would say they'll do it for this price, and Western Electric would say, "Okay, we'll give you the work then, since you're the lowest bidder." CHERYL: The companies, we believe, are getting a very good deal. [NARRATOR]: Companies that work with employment agencies that hold 14(c) certificates Vons Boeing Home Depot The Medicine Shop Merriam-Webster Walgreens 3M Best Western Pizza Hut CHERYL: The workshop is getting a lot of money, paying on average under $2 an hour across the country. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Roy Rocha. Bakersfield, California. ROY: And they go, "Okay, let's see how fast you can take a phone apart." I start taking phones apart real quick, and they go, "Oh man, you do it pretty quick," and all this stuff, and I said, "Man, I gonna miss no days, and I'm gonna see how much my first paycheck is." AUDIO DESCRIPTION: James Meadours. San Antonio, Texas. JAMES: When I was in Oklahoma, I was there a short time in my high school, and they said, "We got a job for you." I said, "Cool, a job!" And when I saw my first paycheck, I said, "That's not right!" ROY: And then two weeks came, they were passing out payroll at the program. And I opened it, I go, "$15?" And I took it to the supervisor, I go, "What happened? I didn't miss no days, how come my check's only $15?" JAMES: It was only $7.70. And then I look at the rate, they said it's 50 cents an hour, I said, "Oh my God!" AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Betty Williams. Indianapolis, Indiana. BETTY: How would you like to go into a sheltered workshop and work for two weeks and come out with a $6 check? That happened to me more than once. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: A vintage film of Goodwill Industries showing workers in their workshop. (ANNOUNCER): It's spring, and again the rush is on for the Goodwill Industries. Let's leave the customers for a moment while we inspect the operation of this splendid social service agency. CHARLES: When I used to work at Goodwill, that was a same thing kind of a deal. Some people would make maybe 10, 15, 20 dollars a week. MARK: Well, Goodwill is one of the largest employers, and I would say exploiters, of the provisions under the law that permit people with disabilities to be paid less than the minimum wage. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: The Center for Disability Rights. Stephanie works at her desk, seated in her wheelchair. STEPHANIE: I'm Stephanie Woodward, I'm the Director of Advocacy at the Center for Disability Rights in Rochester, New York. We just did a FOIA request from Goodwill. We did Goodwill nationally, for all of their wages. [percussive music] [NARRATOR]: Goodwill hourly wages Grand Island, Nebraska $2.53 per hour Birmingham, Alabama $1.51 per hour Branford, Connecticut $0.40 per hour Cincinnati, Ohio $0.02 per hour STEPHANIE: We found that can be as low as two cents an hour. (INTERVIEWER): Two cents an hour? STEPHANIE: Two cents. MARK: The management is making very, very significant six figure salaries, and they say then that they can't afford to pay people with disabilities a minimum wage. CHERYL: Provider agencies have told us that if they had to pay half of minimum wage that they would probably go bankrupt. [NARRATOR]: CEO Annual Salaries Opportunity Partners, Inc., Minnetonka, Minnesota $198,693 CW Resources, New Britain, Connecticut $293,764 Ohio Valley Goodwill, Cincinnati, Ohio $342,069 Goodwill Industries of Orange County, Santa Anna, California $352,338 Pride Industries Inc., Roseville, California $361,578 Elwyn Inc., Elwyn, Pennsylvania $400,065 Goodwill National, Rockville, Maryland $565,925 AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Photo of Jim Gibbons, CEO of Goodwill. MARK: Quite ironic that the CEO of Goodwill, who is a blind person, thinks that other people with disabilities don't deserve a basic level of equality, and I don't know how you resolve that in your own mind as a person with a disability, except that you don't believe in the concept of equality and civil rights. CHARLES: These places had a vested interest in keeping people there, especially those who could produce. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Charles walks into a convenience store. CHARLES: You may say, "Well, why didn't you quit?" Well, there was nowhere else to go. Western Electric never thought about hiring people like myself to do it, and I would have done very well at it. But they would have had to pay me like everybody else, and they didn't wanna do that. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Charles buys a lottery ticket. (CHARLES): I'm poor now, and I gotta carry that to my grave. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Charles holds up his Mega Millions ticket. CHARLES: If I win, wouldn't that be nice? I spent years doing this stuff in the sheltered workshops, but it really didn't prepare me for anything, they lied to us and said that it would. I was basically sold a bill of goods. [slow electronic music] [NARRATOR]: Share the full film in your community. Host a screening. BottomDollarsMovie.com End of transcript.

“Bottom Dollars Movie Chapter 02” produced by Rooted in Rights [slow electronic music] [NARRATOR]: Bottom Dollars Chapter two - "Even when you hustle..." AUDIO DESCRIPTION: A river runs through the small town of Tiffin, Ohio. Minimum wage $8.15 per hour. PAMELA: My name's Pamela Steward. I like to sew, like to walk, like to go shopping and out to eat. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Pamela sewing. (PAMELA): I embroider pillowcases and pass them out to friends and family members. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: She holds up an embroidered pillow. PAMELA: I have a learning disability as of to math, reading, and spelling. I work at Seneca Re-Ad, I work there full time. I've been there for six years. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Barbara's service dog next to her at a conference table. BARBARA: My name is Barbara Corner. I'm an attorney, and I'm also the employment team leader here at Disability Rights Ohio. The Seneca Re-Ad is a sheltered workshop. It basically has one major contract with Roppe, a multimillion-dollar corporation that provides flooring-- tile and flooring, more or less for commercial establishments, and so they contract with Seneca County and with this workshop to provide the tile samples. PAMELA: We sort them, make sure the print's coming out alright, and then if the print's not coming out alright we'll throw them away, and if the print's coming out alright we'll go ahead and chain them. BARBARA: There are other jobs at the workshop, like for instance, Pam has done the saw where she has used a machine to cut holes, and there's an autoprint that-- which is another machine that prints a pattern on the tiles, so it is, in a lot of ways, light industry. PAMELA: I was probably only getting about three-something an hour. BARBARA: Way below what the wages were for people in light industries, which could be up to 11 to 13 dollars an hour. PAMELA: I don't feel that it's right that one person gets paid better than the other. I feel like we should all be paid the same. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Cheryl Bates-Harris from National Disability Rights Network. (CHERYL): Section 14(c) allows employers to pay individuals based on their productivity. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Mark Riccobono from the National Federation of the Blind. MARK: The idea is to compare the productivity of a person with a disability to a non-disabled person. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: The graphic illustrates Time Studies. (CHERYL): Let's say that we were a widget manufacturer, and they test three individuals without disabilities, and they can make nine widgets an hour, 10 widgets an hour, and 11 widgets an hour. Then the expectation would be that the norm would be the average of 10 widgets an hour. A person with a disability trying to make widgets, and he only makes five widgets in an hour. He would therefore be paid 50% of the prevailing wage since he was only producing 50% of the work. But, if a non-disabled worker also only made five widgets an hour, he would still be paid 100% of the wage, because he benefits from the minimal wage protections. MARK: What happens is, people with disabilities are held to a productivity standard while everybody else is guaranteed a wage regardless of how productive they are or not, so basically every person with a disability has to hustle, or you're out of luck, and, even when you hustle, you're not guaranteed the minimum that everybody else gets. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Pamela embroiders a pillowcase. BARBARA: When they tested our clients, they didn't use the exact same testing conditions as for people without disabilities, so that test wasn't fair. PAMELA: I got held up by people slowing me down on the other side, I had to wait for them to bring jigs over to me so I could actually put the pieces on the jigs. Sometimes they'd slow around and not bring the jigs over so the job could be done. I was relying on other people, and I don't feel at all I was tested right. MARK: The Department of Labor has responsibility for monitoring the 14(c) certificates, but there are a lot of them out there, there are a lot of people with disabilities, and there's a limited amount of capacity at the Department of Labor to monitor, so it's the employers are expected to fill out the papers and expected to do it correctly and expected to tell the truth. BARBARA: From what we found out, the Department of Labor basically just looks at the paper certificate, and doesn't do any further investigation. That's why things have just continued the same way they've been for decades. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Pamela cleans her apartment as her cat watches. PAMELA: When I'm working, I feel that I should be paid as an equal person. [slow xylophone music] [NARRATOR]: Share the full film in your community. Host a screening. BottomDollarsMovie.com End of transcript.

“Bottom Dollars Movie Chapter 01” produced by Rooted in Rights [NARRATOR]: The following film features audio description. Listen for this voice for description of important visuals and titles that appear in the film. [slow electronic music] AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Rooted in Rights logo. [NARRATOR]: Chapter one - "Excellent worker." AUDIO DESCRIPTION: The skyline of Rochester, New York. Minimum wage $9.70 per hour. MELANIE: My name is Melanie Oyer, and I work for the Center for Disability Rights. I met Gloria about two years ago, she is one of my clients. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: A photo of Melanie and Gloria together, smiling. MELANIE: She works at a site for people with disabilities, sorting items, working with little objects, putting plastic parts together. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Gloria Marrero uses sign language. GLORIA (from ASL): I worked there for eight years. MELANIE: Her work always talks about how great an employee she is. She's reliable, she's friendly, she's always on time, she never misses work. GLORIA: Yeah they tell me I'm a good worker, my boss loves me. MELANIE: They have specific categories that they evaluate her on, and the best is four out of four, and she received a four out of four on about 20 different categories. AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Gloria's work records. (MELANIE): In one category it says, "Independent Work Rate," and it says, "Excellent worker, on average makes $3.50 an hour." Gloria is the only excellent worker that I know that makes $3.50 an hour. GLORIA: No, it's not fair. (MELANIE): In my opinion, the only reason why an employer would pay somebody so low that's an excellent worker is because it's legal. [driving electronic music] [NARRATOR]: Rooted in Rights presents... AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Film footage of factory workers from the 1930s. (NBC NEWS ANNOUNCER): Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States. PRESIDENT FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT: My friends... AUDIO DESCRIPTION: Families gathered around their radios to listen. ROOSEVELT: After many requests on my part, the Congress passed a Fair Labor Standards Act. That act sets a floor below wages. MARK: I'm Mark Riccobono, President of the National Federation of the Blind. The Fair Labor Standards Act is a Civil Rights statute, and it provides protections to Americans in the workforce. The minimum wage guarantee was revolutionary. If you were going to take a job, you know what the floor is. (ROOSEVELT): It is the most far-sighted program for the benefit of workers that has ever been adopted, here or in any other country. MARK: But the minimum wage is offered to everybody, except for people with disabilities. CHERYL: I am Cheryl Bates-Harris, I'm the Senior Disability Advocacy Specialist with the National Disability Rights Network. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, which was passed in 1938, there's a section of law called section 14(c). AUDIO DESCRIPTION: 14(c) certificates. MARK: Employers who have a 14(c) certificate pay people with disabilities less than the minimum wage simply based on the fact that they have a disability. So, sub-minimum wage is a term we sometimes use to describe paying people with disabilities a different wage from everybody else. CHERYL: It's intended to be able to give employers the opportunity to hire wounded veterans returning from war. That provision of law was little known and little utilized until sheltered workshops began to flourish in the 50s and the 60s. Sheltered workshop is a congregate facility where people with disabilities go for a period of time during the day. It's very boring, it's shredding newspapers, it's counting nuts, bolts, and screws for packaging. They started for the right reason 50, 60 years ago because parents were keeping their children out of institutions and needed somewhere for them to go during the day. But they've since become an outdated model of segregation. [fast-tempo drum beat] [NARRATOR]: 2016 - 241,265 people with disabilities are paid less than the minimum wage. CHERYL: Statistics show that people with disabilities are at least twice as likely to live below the poverty line. And poverty, I do not believe, is the American dream that we have for our sons and our daughters or our family members, with or without a disability. [NARRATOR]: Bottom Dollars [slow xylophone music] [NARRATOR]: Share the full film in your community. Host a screening. BottomDollarsMovie.com End of transcript.

"The Nothing About Us Without Us Act: WA HB 1802", produced by Rooted in Rights - Spanish transcript Descripción del audio: Los defensores de los discapacitados comparten sus opiniones sobre el proyecto de ley "Nada de Nosotros sin Nosotros" a través de una videollamada. - El proyecto de ley "Nada de Nosotros sin Nosotros” hará que las personas con discapacidad puedan estar plenamente representadas en los grupos de trabajo y en los comités que toman decisiones políticas que afectan a nuestra vida cotidiana como ciudadanos con discapacidad. - Lo cual es muy importante porque demasiadas leyes y demasiados proyectos de ley, se han creado sin nosotros. - No contamos con que las personas sin discapacidades en la legislatura, o los funcionarios del estado, sepan automáticamente lo que necesitamos. - Somos los más idóneos para hablar de ello porque lo estamos viviendo. - Siempre les he dicho a nuestros legisladores, "Estoy aquí para ustedes, acérquense a mí; yo también estoy aquí para apoyarlos". - Históricamente, cuando no nos incluyen en la mesa de discusión, salen muchas malas políticas. Ya sabemos, la institucionalización forzada, esterilización forzada, mucha fuerza y control sobre las personas discapacitadas que esas personas con discapacidades nunca solicitaron. - Ya es hora. Ya es hora de que nos involucren en la creación de estos proyectos de ley -... porque entonces y solo entonces podemos marcar la diferencia al tener una ley que apoye nuestros derechos civiles... - y así prevenir esos momentos que pueden ocurrir cuando los esfuerzos bien intencionados acaban teniendo un impacto no deseado. - Creo que se lograrán mejores legislaciones porque ahora habrá personas en esa mesa de discusión que tengan diversos antecedentes con distintas discapacidades dando su perspectiva. - Así que Nada de Nosotros sin Nosotros, es donde comienza la equidad. End of transcript.

"The Nothing About Us Without Us Act: WA HB 1802", produced by Rooted in Rights - Somali transcript Sharaxaada Codka: Udoodayaasha Cuuryamada faafinaya fikradahooda ku saabsan Wax Anaga Inagu Saabsan La'aanten looguma soo Kordhin karo Wacitaanka Muqaalka. - Majiraan Waxa Inagu Saabsan Anaga La'aanten Sharci Dajin Waxaan ka dhigeyna sidaas marka dadka cuuryaamiinta in si dhameystiran loogu matali karo howl-galada, shaqooyinka-kooxaha, iyo gudiyaasha sameya go'aanada shuruucda saameynta ku leh nolal maalmeedka muwaadiniinta cuuryaaminta ah. - Taas oo aad muhiim u ah maxaa yeelay shuruuc badan, qawaaniin badan, oo tagay - lasameyay anaga la'aanten. - Ma fileyno in dad aan cuuryaamiin aheyn ee ku jira shirci dajiyayaasha ama madaxda maamul goboledyada, in isla markiiba ay horay ka garan karaan waxa aan u baahan nahay. - Anaga ayaa taa aad ugu mudan in aan ka hadalno sababtoo ah anaga ayaaba ku nool. - Waxaan mar walbo u sheegi jiray shuruuc dajiyayaasheyda, "Aniga ayaa idiin diyaar ah halkaan, ila soo xiriira; aniga ayaa halkaan u joogo in aan idiin taagero, sidoo kale." - Taarikhiyan, marka aanan anaga miiska joogin, waxaa soo baxo shuruucyo badan oo aad u xun. Waad ogtahay, hay'adeynta qasabka ah, xubnaha sida qasabka leyskaga jarayo, qasab faro badan, iyo koontarool in laguugu daro dadka cuuryaamiinta ayada oo aynan dadka cuuryaamiinta marka codsan. - Waa waqtigii. Waan ka daahnay in aan ka qeyb qaadano sameynta shuruucyadan... -...sababtoo ah kadib markaas kadib oo kaliya ayaan sameyn karnaa isbadal anagoo leh sharci taageraya xaquuqdeyna muwaadin... -...iyo in aan ka hortagno waqtiyada ay dhici karto in isku dayo dadaalo wanaagsan ay keenaan dhibaato aanan loo meel dayan. - Waxaan aaminsanahy in lasameyn karo shuruuc wanaagsan sababtoo ah hadda waxaad lahaan doonta dad kugu matala miiska kuwaaso leh qibrado kala duwan cuuryaamo kala duwan kuwaaso muujinaya qeybahaas - Marka Majiraan Waxa Inagu Saabsan Anaga La'aanten ayaa ah halka ay sinaantu ka bilaabaneyso. End of transcript.

"The Nothing About Us Without Us Act: WA HB 1802", produced by Rooted in Rights - Chinese (Traditional) transcript 音頻描述:殘疾倡導者 通過視頻分享他們對 “Nothing About Us Without Us”法案的意見。 - “Nothing About Us Without Us”法案 能讓 殘疾人 有機會代表 專家組、 工作組和委員會 來參與政策決定 並造福殘疾公民的 日常生活。 - 這很重要,因為有 太多的法律 太多的法案 沒有把我們考慮進去。 - 我們不期望那些身處 立法機關或州政府的健康官員 了解我們這些殘疾人需要什麼。 - 我們自己最清楚 因為殘疾是我們生活的一部分。 - 我經常跟我的議員說, “不管你需要什麼, 都可以告訴我; 我也會支持你的。” - 前車之鑑,只要我們不參與, 就會出現很多不好的政策。 比如,強制制度化, 強制絕育, 很多強制措施和限制 被實施到殘疾人身上 而這些並不是我們想要的。 - 我們不能再等了。 我們早該參與 這些法案的創建... - ...因為只有到那時 我們才能有所作為 也將有法律 保護我們的公民權利... - ...並防止以往那些 善意的努力 演變成惡意的影響。 - 我相信會有更好的立法 因為未來立法的創建將有 來自不同背景的 不同殘疾的我們 貢獻我們的建議。 - 因此,“Nothing About Us Without Us” End of transcript.

"The Nothing About Us Without Us Act: WA HB 1802", produced by Rooted in Rights - Amharic transcript የድምጽ ዝርዝር፡ የአካል ጉዳተኞች የመብት ተሟጋቾች በቪዲዮ የስልክ ጥሪ ስለ ያለእኛ ስለእኛ መወራት የለበትም ህግ (Nothing About US Without Us bill) ሃሳባቸው አጋርተውናል። - ያለእኛ ስለእኛ መወራት የለበትም ህግ (Nothing About US Without Us bill) እኛ አካል ጉዳተኞች እንደ አካል ጉዳተኛ ዜጎችነታችን እኛን የሚመልከቱ የፖሊሲ ውሳኔዎች የሚመለከቱ እያንዳንዱ ግብረ-ሃይሎች፣ የስራ ቡድኖች፣ እና ኮሜቴዎች ውስጥ ሙሉ በሙሉ እንድንወከል ያደርጋል። - ይህም በጣም ጠቃሚ ነው ምክኒያቱም ብዙ ህጎች፣ ብዙ መመሪያዎች፣ እኛን ሳያሳትፉ አልፈዋል። - የአካል ጉዳት የሌለባቸው በህግ አውጪ ቦታ ላይ ያሉ እና የስቴት ሃላፊዎች በቅጽበት እኛ የሚያስፈልገንን ያውቃሉ ብለን አንጠብቅም። - እየኖርነው ስለሆነ ከእኛ በላይ ስለእዚህ ጉዳይ ለመናገር ትክክለኞቹ ሰዎች ነን። - ህግ አውጪዎቼን ብዙ ጊዜ እንደሚከተለው ብያቸዋለሁ፣ “እዚህ አለሁልዎት፣ እኔን አናግሩኝ፣ እናንተን ልረዳ ነው እዚህ ያለሁት።” - በታሪክ ሲታይ፣ እኛ በሌለንበት ጊዜ፣ ብዙ መጥፎ ፖሊሲ ይወጣል። በግድ ተቋምን ማቋቋም፣ በግድ መካንነትን መፈጸም፣ የአካል ጉዳተኞች ጠይቀውት የማያውቁት ነገር ግን ብዙ ሃይል እና ቁጥጥር በአካል ጉዳተኞች ላይ ይፈጸማል። - ጊዜው አሁን ነው... እነዚህ ህጎች ሲረቀቁ እኛ መሳተፍ ያለብን ጊዜ ድሮ ቢሆንም አሁንም ቢሆን መሳተፍ አለብን። - ...ምክኒያቱም ያኔ እና ያኔ ብቻ ነው ሰብአዊ መብቶቻችንን የሚያስጠብቅ ህግ እንዲወጣ በማድረግ ልዩነት ማምጣት የምንችለው... - ... እናም በጥሩ አላማ የተደረጉ ጥረቶች ከአላማ ውጪ የሆነ ጉዳት እንዳያመጡ መከላከል የምንችለው ያኔ ነው። - የተሻለ ህግን አሁን ማውጣት ይቻላል ብዬ አስባለሁ ምክኒያቱም ከተለያየ አመጣጥ የመጡ እና የተለያየ የአካል ጉዳት ያለባቸው ሰዎች ሃስብ ይካተታል። - So Nothing About Us Without Us is where equity begins. ስለዚህ ያለእኛ ስለእኛ መወራት የለበትም ህግ (Nothing About US Without Us bill) እኩልነት የሚጀምርበት ቦታ ነው። End of transcript.

"The Nothing About Us Without Us Act: WA HB 1802", produced by Rooted in Rights [audio description]: Disabled advocates share their opinions on the Nothing About Us Without Us bill over video call. - The Nothing About Us Without Us bill will make it so that people with disabilities can be fully represented on task-force work-groups or committees that make policy decisions that affect our everyday lives as citizens with disabilities. - Which is very important because too many laws-- too many bills have gone-- have been created without us. - We don't expect people without disabilities in the legislature, or state officials, to automatically somehow know what we need. - We are best to speak on that because we are living it. - I've always told my legislators, I'm here for you, reach out to me, I'm here to support you, too. - Historically when we're not at the table, a lot of bad policy comes out, you know, forced institutionalization, forced sterilization, a lot of force and control being put on people with disabilities, that people with disabilities never asked for. - It's time. It's well overdue for us to be involved in creating these bills. - because then and only then can we make a difference by having a law that supports our civil rights - and prevent those times that can happen when well-intentioned efforts end up having an unintended impact. - I believe better legislation will be made because you now will have people at the table that have various backgrounds with various disabilities giving that perspective. - So Nothing About Us Without Us is where equity begins. End of Transcript.

I WAS BORN WITH MODERATE-SEVERE CEREBRAL PALSY WITH COMPLICATIONS AND CONDITIONS LIKE FUSED RIBS AND HIP DYSPLASIA PLUS COMBINED SCOLIOSIS. THE DOCTORS ,WHEN I WAS BORN IN 1963 , NEVER TOLD MY PARENT'S. HOWEVER, MY DAD ( SOMETIMES IGNORANCE IS BLISS) AT THE AGE OF FIVE TAUGHT ME TO RIDE A BIKE. IT WAS EASIER FOR MY BROTHER EIGHTEEN MONTH'S YOUNGER TO RIDE A BIKE WITHOUT TRAINING WHEEL'S. IT TOOK ME LONGER , BECAUSE I WAS UNABLE TO BALANCE. MY DAD'S CONSTANT ENCOURAGEMENT AND NEVER ALLOWING ME TO STOP LEARNING , BECAUSE I COULDN'T BALANCE FORCED ME TO FIND MY OWN CENTRE OF BALANCE. THE SCOLIOSIS AND HIP DYSPLASIA WASN'T MUCH HELP, BUT I DID IT. I DID USE TO NOTICE I WOULD GET IN PAIN AND STRUGGLE IN PLACES THAT MY FRIEND'S FOUND EASIER THAN ME. I LOVE IT WHEN I USE TO RIDE MY BIKE, BUT HAVE TO USE A POWERCHAIR. IT WOULD BE NICE TO BE ABLE TO JUST GET ON A BIKE AND GO . MY HUSBAND CAN'T RIDE CERTAIN BIKES BECAUSE OF A CERTAIN OPERATION. HOWEVER, I LIKE THE LOOKS OF THE EASY RIDER. I LIKE THE ONE WITH THE FOOT PLATE AND FRONT BASKET. I CAN MOVE ON FLAT SURFACES , BUT NOT TOO LONG WITHOUT PAIN. IF I COULD HOOK MY ROLLAFRAME ON THE BACK WOULD BE GREAT AND USING IT IN FOREST'S AND WOODLAND'S WOULD BE GREAT SAVING MY POWERCHAIR FOR REALLY BAD DAY'S AND ALTHOUGH I'VE SEEN ANOTHER POWERCHAIR THAT CAN GET 40 MILES ON ONE CHARGE - IT WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE AN EASY RIDER ,AS A RECREATIONAL VEHICLE AND TAKE A CAMPER ON THE BACK THAT MY HUSBAND AND I COULD STAY IN FOR A WEEKEND.

“Correctional facilities” aka ‘Federally & State Sponsored Behavioral Control & Indoctrination facilities’ were designed by & for the Plutocracy. Oligarchs don’t like you “stirring up trouble” or living the life you want, so this “correctional facility” is here to “fix you” because we say you’re broken, unsafe, a threat to their ability to maintain the plutocracy as its existed since Arriving in North America . So we will arrest you & deny ALL your freedoms, both physically psychological, and in every other way possible, until we either have you reduced to a medically blanked out drug stupored zombie or a working slave set to support the in place systems of cruelty.

Former Xanax addict there’s no support in there

When i was in jail the only way i could get my meds was if my family members gave the jail my meds so i can get them i was in jail for 4 days in seclusion the whole time cause i was suicidal i assuasted someone for being suicidal and was in jail for it

Does anyone have suggestions for an easier bike helmet clasp? I work with a 71 year-old gentleman who has a variety of disabilities. He lives alone and, of course, values his independence. He rode his bicycle all over town when he was young, but his age and years of seizures have taken a toll on his motor skills. He recently bought an adult trike but he is really struggling with the helmet clasp. I have been looking and even called our local bike shop but I can't seem to find anything that is easier for him to connect and disconnect under his chin. I'm sure there is something out there and I'm hoping someone can help me :-)

Want a story?! Dm me spent time in 3 in them. I’m bipolar and Leavenworth refused to give my meds.

What the government thinks is that. As soon as you are you are in jail, you can NEVER EVER be a good person again. And that has to stop. America should try to look at what other countrys do. Such as: Norway, Finland or Denmark.

Why would society torture people that have hard miserable lives for no reason

I was diagnosed with MDD. My other co-ward told me that no one will listen to you or understand you once they knew about your illness because for them, it is just a drama and craziness. After 2 weeks staying at the institution, I realized they're right. No one welcomed me nor talk to me after it. Everybody ignores me until now. I guess, I'm still alone in this unfair world , with my unstable mental health.